Monday
Oct122009
Interesting and fun vehicles from Europe
Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:15PM
A quick post - here is a gallery of pictures of various forms of transport I took on my European Cruise.
People in France and Italy seem to have a liberated approach to transport that makes the UK look dull in comparison (not difficult).
Their use of scooters is particularly interesting to me. I saw two teenage sons dropping their mother and sister pillion passengers off in town for some shopping, a young mother holding a baby in her arms whilst her husband weaved their scooter through rush hour traffic. Numerous toddlers standing up behind scooter windshields holding onto the handlebars above their head. People carrying all shorts of things in one hand (pizza, laptop etc) whilst using the other hand to accelerate, steer and brake. A common practice is to jam a mobile phone down the side of an open face helmet - a kind of rudimentary hands-free. It looks like a free for all - but imagine what would happen if all these people were forced to drive cars instead - gridlock. Better to let things work themselves out organically.
Vehicles here aren't cherished prized objects - most of them are battered and dented. People park up against one another and no one seems to mind. A near-miss I saw was greeted with an apologetic wave from the offender and a never-mind shrug from the driver who nearly T-boned them. A lot different from the swearing road-rage scene that would have no doubt ensued in the UK.
As far as the cars go - the supermini is king. I'm particularly fond of the original Fiat 500s - they actually make the Smart car look bloated and are still being used for everyday transport rather than kept as cherished classics. Many of the American tourists had never seen a Smart car before and were amazed at this vehicle which is already a familiar well established car in most of Europe.
If anyone wants to look at the transport options for the future they need to take a long hard look at a city like Rome to realise that if you step back and let the people figure it out themselves, then they might just do that. The weather does play a big part though.
This scooter was in Cannes - The Leopard Skin is actually flock not paint
[gallery]
People in France and Italy seem to have a liberated approach to transport that makes the UK look dull in comparison (not difficult).
Their use of scooters is particularly interesting to me. I saw two teenage sons dropping their mother and sister pillion passengers off in town for some shopping, a young mother holding a baby in her arms whilst her husband weaved their scooter through rush hour traffic. Numerous toddlers standing up behind scooter windshields holding onto the handlebars above their head. People carrying all shorts of things in one hand (pizza, laptop etc) whilst using the other hand to accelerate, steer and brake. A common practice is to jam a mobile phone down the side of an open face helmet - a kind of rudimentary hands-free. It looks like a free for all - but imagine what would happen if all these people were forced to drive cars instead - gridlock. Better to let things work themselves out organically.
Vehicles here aren't cherished prized objects - most of them are battered and dented. People park up against one another and no one seems to mind. A near-miss I saw was greeted with an apologetic wave from the offender and a never-mind shrug from the driver who nearly T-boned them. A lot different from the swearing road-rage scene that would have no doubt ensued in the UK.
As far as the cars go - the supermini is king. I'm particularly fond of the original Fiat 500s - they actually make the Smart car look bloated and are still being used for everyday transport rather than kept as cherished classics. Many of the American tourists had never seen a Smart car before and were amazed at this vehicle which is already a familiar well established car in most of Europe.
If anyone wants to look at the transport options for the future they need to take a long hard look at a city like Rome to realise that if you step back and let the people figure it out themselves, then they might just do that. The weather does play a big part though.
This scooter was in Cannes - The Leopard Skin is actually flock not paint[gallery]
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