4 ms·

Honest question: why? It seems patently absurd to me, especially when you're visiting. I'm visiting Berlin right now. It's a car friendly city in a car friendl

Honest question: why? It seems patently absurd to me, especially when you're visiting. I'm visiting Berlin right now. It's a car friendly city in a car friendly country and I wouldn't want to drive anywhere here if you paid me. Too much of a hassle. Besides driving is so incredibly boring. If you're visiting, you're not going to really experience the city from behind the windows of a metal box. Maybe Northern American cities are different, but I haven't yet visited a European city where driving would be clearly preferable.

dominotw 7y ago
other options in USA are 1. Being abused by TSA 2. Take amtrak and get left middle of nowhere at 1 am , 2 days late. 3. Take greyhound/
- adimitrov 7y ago
  But that's between cities. Fwiw, I'm in Berlin by train. But by car would have been an option, too. But in the city? There are so many better options!
- tharne 7y ago
  This is a depressingly accurate assessment.
- lallysingh 7y ago
  Other bus companies have come up that are both cheap and reasonable nice. I used to take BoltBus all the time.
ghaff 7y ago
If it's a city I'm flying into (or taking train to), sure. I don't want to drive in a city, especially one I'm not familiar with, when I don't need to. But a nearby city I'm driving to from home? I'm far less likely to go in for the evening if there aren't good parking options. I'm even near a commuter rail line which works pretty well if I have a daytime event. But it doesn't work for evening things.
barney54 7y ago
I have really liked driving in Europe. The true benefit of driving is seeing what is in between cities.
- telesilla 7y ago
  Depends what part of Europe. Around the mediterranean, sure. But in the industrial north / Benelux - not so much to see, but the cities are gorgeous.
  - bryanlarsen 7y ago
    Strongly disagree. My wife & I cycled from Copenhagen to Skagen to Amsterdam to Paris. We loved both the cities and the countryside.
    - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
      If I may ask, how did you do so? How did you handle luggage? (Or did you have none?) Were you part of a tour, or just on your own?
      - bryanlarsen 7y ago
        We carried our luggage along in panniers. Lots of people do Europe with just a backpack; a bike can carry more weight & volume easily. We did it on our own, mostly staying in campgrounds, although we also used hostels and crashed at friends & relations a couple of times.
    - telesilla 7y ago
      That's true - cycling is a completely different experience in that part of Europe, it's quite lovely.
ctdonath 7y ago
Public transit, if you're not acclimated to it, is absurd. Coming from outside the area, I'd have to pay to park (including time spent trying to find a decent spot), walk a non-trivial distance to the station, coordinate movement of multiple people (including young children) amid crowds, wait for transit arrival, board, find seat (!), wait, stop at every station before exit, switch transit multiple times (repeat wait/board/sit/wait), be in close proximity with strange/unpleasant/criminal people, finally walk considerable distance to destination ... never mind cargo issues. If you're acclimated to this, you don't grasp how repulsive it sounds to many. That vs what is (to us driving-acclimated): get in car, drive there, get out ... with plenty of cargo space. Take the dog if you like. There's a reason I live suburban and yearn for rural: I don't want to be shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers much of the time, transit included. A few rare cases aside (Munich was nice), I don't want to "experience the city" - most are dirty overcrowded bastions of hyper-dependency. A car is a refuge; transit is exposure.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >Public transit, if you're not acclimated to it, is absurd. Coming from outside the area, I'd have to pay to park (including time spent trying to find a decent spot), walk a non-trivial distance to the station, coordinate movement of multiple people (including young children) amid crowds, wait for transit arrival, board, find seat (!), wait, stop at every station before exit, switch transit multiple times (repeat wait/board/sit/wait), be in close proximity with strange/unpleasant/criminal people, finally walk considerable distance to destination ... Oh, the humanity... All this sounds like someone perfectly able but going around in a power chair describing the "horrors" of walking around...
- glofish 7y ago
  Wait, you forgot the bit where you are stuck in downtown traffic for hours and you can't find a parking space near the location of where you are going. Then, what if you want to go to multiple places a day, each a mile or two away, the whole ordeal repeats. It has nothing to do with acclimation - many European cities cannot operate in a car-dependent manner. As for being in close proximity to strange/unpleasant/criminals ... that's the American thinking. Yes, there are many places in America where getting a bus is very troubling, stinks, dirty ugly etc. But then there are plenty of public transportations options in Europe and elsewhere that are almost free (for a day's parking you can travel for a week on every mode of transport), clean, fast, efficient, not crowded. Incomparably simpler, easier and better than driving - especially if you are going a mile or two away.

dominotw 7y ago

other options in USA are 1. Being abused by TSA 2. Take amtrak and get left middle of nowhere at 1 am , 2 days late. 3. Take greyhound/

adimitrov 7y ago
But that's between cities. Fwiw, I'm in Berlin by train. But by car would have been an option, too. But in the city? There are so many better options!
tharne 7y ago
This is a depressingly accurate assessment.
lallysingh 7y ago
Other bus companies have come up that are both cheap and reasonable nice. I used to take BoltBus all the time.

ghaff 7y ago

If it's a city I'm flying into (or taking train to), sure. I don't want to drive in a city, especially one I'm not familiar with, when I don't need to. But a nearby city I'm driving to from home? I'm far less likely to go in for the evening if there aren't good parking options. I'm even near a commuter rail line which works pretty well if I have a daytime event. But it doesn't work for evening things.

barney54 7y ago

I have really liked driving in Europe. The true benefit of driving is seeing what is in between cities.

telesilla 7y ago
Depends what part of Europe. Around the mediterranean, sure. But in the industrial north / Benelux - not so much to see, but the cities are gorgeous.
- bryanlarsen 7y ago
  Strongly disagree. My wife & I cycled from Copenhagen to Skagen to Amsterdam to Paris. We loved both the cities and the countryside.
  - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
    If I may ask, how did you do so? How did you handle luggage? (Or did you have none?) Were you part of a tour, or just on your own?
    - bryanlarsen 7y ago
      We carried our luggage along in panniers. Lots of people do Europe with just a backpack; a bike can carry more weight & volume easily. We did it on our own, mostly staying in campgrounds, although we also used hostels and crashed at friends & relations a couple of times.
  - telesilla 7y ago
    That's true - cycling is a completely different experience in that part of Europe, it's quite lovely.

ctdonath 7y ago

Public transit, if you're not acclimated to it, is absurd. Coming from outside the area, I'd have to pay to park (including time spent trying to find a decent spot), walk a non-trivial distance to the station, coordinate movement of multiple people (including young children) amid crowds, wait for transit arrival, board, find seat (!), wait, stop at every station before exit, switch transit multiple times (repeat wait/board/sit/wait), be in close proximity with strange/unpleasant/criminal people, finally walk considerable distance to destination ... never mind cargo issues. If you're acclimated to this, you don't grasp how repulsive it sounds to many. That vs what is (to us driving-acclimated): get in car, drive there, get out ... with plenty of cargo space. Take the dog if you like. There's a reason I live suburban and yearn for rural: I don't want to be shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers much of the time, transit included. A few rare cases aside (Munich was nice), I don't want to "experience the city" - most are dirty overcrowded bastions of hyper-dependency. A car is a refuge; transit is exposure.

coldtea 7y ago
>Public transit, if you're not acclimated to it, is absurd. Coming from outside the area, I'd have to pay to park (including time spent trying to find a decent spot), walk a non-trivial distance to the station, coordinate movement of multiple people (including young children) amid crowds, wait for transit arrival, board, find seat (!), wait, stop at every station before exit, switch transit multiple times (repeat wait/board/sit/wait), be in close proximity with strange/unpleasant/criminal people, finally walk considerable distance to destination ... Oh, the humanity... All this sounds like someone perfectly able but going around in a power chair describing the "horrors" of walking around...
glofish 7y ago
Wait, you forgot the bit where you are stuck in downtown traffic for hours and you can't find a parking space near the location of where you are going. Then, what if you want to go to multiple places a day, each a mile or two away, the whole ordeal repeats. It has nothing to do with acclimation - many European cities cannot operate in a car-dependent manner. As for being in close proximity to strange/unpleasant/criminals ... that's the American thinking. Yes, there are many places in America where getting a bus is very troubling, stinks, dirty ugly etc. But then there are plenty of public transportations options in Europe and elsewhere that are almost free (for a day's parking you can travel for a week on every mode of transport), clean, fast, efficient, not crowded. Incomparably simpler, easier and better than driving - especially if you are going a mile or two away.