Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Getting Around -Transportation Culture

In a city, there are many things to do, many places to see and be. Of course, modes of transportation are important. In Buenos Aires, where all the barrios, or neighborhoods, are so close, it is easy to walk around the city. Every morning on my commute to school I tread across uneven cobblestone paths. The sidewalks are marked with different tiles which change patterns with every block. I pass underneath the beautiful architecture of the city, inspired by Italian culture. I see faces of all the city people, they brush shoulders with me on their way to lunch. The students and workers who take lunch break in the park enjoy the afternoon sun on the grass. The kids play futbol on any stretch of space they can find. Crossing the street, I have to dodge the fast moving taxis and Peugots who run the road.

Taking a taxi is an adventure in itself. There are no rules of the road, no signs, no lines, no speed limits, nothing is off limits. It is easy to get from one side of the city to the other in a taxi in less than 15 minutes. The taxis are decorated with rosaries and pictures of saints, but it is not prayers the drivers recite to one another when they whiz through the streets. Some taxis decorate their cars with stereos, making sure to play American pop music when the students take a ride. The taxis share the road with the few cars on the street, including the most popular, Peugeots.

Very few people own cars in the city, however, the people who do own vehicles, drive them to the very last mile. The antique cars that we would display in car shows are being driven through the streets of Buenos Aires. Most people do not see the need for cars, unless they have a house in campo, or the country, in which they need transportation out of the city. However, most people get by with use of scooters.

Motorcars are the most effective modes of transportation in the city. The majority of scooter riders are the messengers of stores like, ice cream parlors, movie rental stores and empanada restaurants. In Buenos Aires, you can have anything delivered to your door. Scooters have no reservations when on the road. The navigate through the streets with their helmets resting on their foreheads. They buzz past traffic, weaving in and out of the lines of taxis. They skip lights and travel on the sidewalks amongst the pedestrians. The scooters rev their loud motors waiting for the lights to change. Here, the lights are different in that they change from red, to yellow, to green, back again to yellow then red. So, when crossing the street, a yellow light does not necessarily mean the light is going to turn red and it is safe to cross, sometimes the light turns green!

The kings of the road and most popular mode of travel are the colectivos, or city buses. There are hundreds of different buses that roam all over the city. They are each very unique in color and its design. They are decorated with bold green, red and blue paints that is stylistic to Buenos Aires, known as filefeado. Inside, the windows are lined with fringe. There are few seats, so most people are subject to stand. At night, some of the buses are illuminated with blue lights running down the aisles and through the ceilings, it makes the buses look more like a night club than a city bus.

My favorite way to get around the city is underground. The five lines of the subte cover most of the city’s expanse. I usually take the green line which follows straight through the city from one end, the Plaza Mayo, right through my neighborhood to Belgrano on the other side of the city. The subtes are cheap to ride too. For only $1,10 you can ride the subtes all day long, changing lines and directions. Subtes fill up during rush hour times, making them more of cattle cars than subte cars. The subte system was designed by the British, so some of the stops are on the opposite side of the car. It is important to pay attention to which doors are going to open so you do not miss your stop!

I have found that exploring the city is easy with all the ways I can get around. And, it makes for an interesting adventure discovering all of these methods of transportation.

1 comment:

  1. SCOOTERS! You ARE in the right place aren't you? Does this mean we are going to have to buy you a scooter to get you home? I'd better start saving. Great blog, Kels. I'd love to see some pictures of the busses.

    XOXOXO

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