Car-free day...

I’d love to call it a carefree day… Daydream… This noteworthy initiative was first launched in 2001, now almost all countries in Europe participate in it, for at least forth time it has been staged in Warsaw. The upshot of the praiseworthy event turned out to be a complete letdown – as TVN Warszawa and Gazeta.pl report, the traffic jams in Warsaw today were much worse than on an ordinary Tuesday. According to the journalists and their interlocutors, the reasons why Warsaw was stuck in the morning can be traced back to our mentality. The drivers stopped by the reporters claimed in unison they had thought all the drivers would have left their cars in car parks and garages and had commuted to work by public transport. Because (almost) everybody thought so, even more drivers chose to go to town by their own vehicles, causing the subsequent traffic jams.

Warsaw Public Transport Authority decided that the best incentive for the car owners to change their cars into buses and trams would be free rides. Here came an overt discrimination – the right to ride without paying a fare was granted only to the ones who could show a registration certificate of their own car. Thus my father went to Warsaw by bus for free and came home quite satisfied with the journey – the 709 bus was almost empty, he had a seat, but the ride took quite long as the bus got stuck with other vehicles on clogged up ul. Puławska. I had to buy a ticket and felt discriminated ;)

The situation looked differently on Trasa Łazienkowska, where the bus lane was opened today. There traffic was snarled up for two thousand drivers, meanwhile the journey from Ochota to Praga Południe by bus is fifteen minutes shorter. The basic problem with bus lanes is that what allows the bus drivers to overtake smoothly other vehicles makes the drivers sitting comfortably behind their wheels stick in the even worse jams. Surprisingly, or predictably bus lanes only slightly put the drivers off commuting by car. Poles are reluctant to travel to work by buses or trams and are blind to (scarce) advantages of public transport. I see two reasons for such stance.

Firstly, Poland is still a society on the make – as a consequence having a car meaning showing (off with) social status. Someone who uses public transport is still in many circles perceived as less resourceful, poorer, in a word inferior. You could argue it changes for the better – where the people are open-minded thing are heading in a good direction. As I commute to Warsaw I can see a clear distinction between those two tiers of people who travel to town. One consists of businessmen, managers, elegant ladies, children of rich parents and all sorts of white collars, another is made up of students, pupils, whose parents don’t drop them off or pick up from school, pensioners, middle-aged women and representatives of blue-collar professions.

Secondly, it’s quality of the public transport. Inside the buses it’s too hot both in summer and in winter, air-con is never on, drivers are impolite, timetables are the approximate source of information on when the buses run. The links are often inconvenient, passengers are packed like sardines, it often stinks.

But the first, status reason still prevails. I’m waiting for the moment I change bus to car, but not to look down on commuters but to increase my comfort of travelling. I’m just tired of breaking sweat in a bus or walking one kilometres to the bus stop in the rain, boiling heat or freeze. But I wouldn’t hesitate to do away with a car, if there was a fast train from where I live at least to the nearest underground station. That’s why I can’t see the reason why many inhabitants of Ursynów, living few steps away from the underground station still use their cars. It mostly gets on my nerves whenever I see a fellow student parking a car with WN, WE or WI number plate (often better than my father’s one) on a tiny car park in front of SGH. It’s much cheaper to go by underground, tram, etc and much more convenient, taking into account difficulties with finding parking space. So the main reason is to show off and emphasise the social status…

I’ve made a New (academic) Year Resolution – I won’t be writing about all the absurdities I experience at school – grief-sodden posts won’t bear any fruit. Today I’ll confine to only one remark – may it render the chaos of allegedly the best academy of economics.
“The students who passed their bachelor’s exam until 3rd July can receive their diplomas” – such announcement was put up by administrative staff today. The case is that bachelor’s exams were held since 6th July…

Oh… And I’ll pass over my adventures with national health service, number transfers, lack of running water in the tap every evening…

After the (aborted) holiday break…

Alright, over a week ago I gave my word to put here a photo coverage of my stay in Suwalszczyzna and some pictures of Polish bizarre countryside… I didn’t make it, I break the promise… Things have tangled up a bit and I had to pack my suitcases and return to Warsaw immediately on Tuesday (family reasons, situation has straighten up since then, Thank God)… However, I’m a step closer to unravelling the secret of the squalor of Polish rural areas – it’s the mentality (is it a key to the door?). Some argue there’s a common stance of “I don’t care” (PL: nie obchodzi mnie), I’d incline to add also “I don’t mind” (PL: nie przeszkadza mi). It might the major cause of the horrific shape of things in Polish society – peasants don’t mind their roads are in fact dirt tracks, their pavements are crooked or pot-holed, it doesn’t impress them that their yards become quagmires after every single rainfall. They’re used to such squalor because they grew up in it. It only confirms my thesis that what is instilled at home in childhood and partly in adolescence remains with a man for the rest of his life, it applies both to good and bad traits, habits, patterns of behaviour, etc.

The mentality thirty five kilometres behind Suwałki is different than in Warsaw, however I still lean towards claiming that the ones who migrated from there to Warsaw or other fast-developing Polish cities deep down have their another culture, they don’t nurture it, rather try to suppress it and do not let it come to the light…
I still wonder how people can live in such places… Warsaw is said to be a running water – people run rather then walk, elbow their ways, push through, are in the endless haste. Away from the city (which unlike in the advertisement of Citi sometimes sleeps) there’s a land where water is almost still. House are inhabited, but the only symptom which gives away that fact is the smoke coming out of the chimney. Not a man on the street, if you see someone, he’s at least inebriated…

People move by cars, hardly ever brand new ones, usually used and imported from Germany (at first I thought they had a bit of a problem, but later on it occurred to me they never buy newer than nine years), prevailing makes are Audi, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes. Bangers, beaten after accidents, with odometers rolled back, are a benchmark of a social status in the community. The landlords of the agrotourism lodgings where I stayed bought this year two Mercedes cars – A-Klasse from 2001 and C-Klasse from 2002. They had paid for the first thirty six thousand zlotys as they declared – much too much a for a badly-maintained car with dirty interior and scratched body – sum is mind-boggling – that’s one hundred and fifty per cent of our car’s value, but ours is two years newer, much better maintained, hadn’t had an accident, but it’s only Renault, driving Renault is not a benchmark of prestige, driving Mercedes is a totally different issue. C-Klasse cost over forty thousand – thus the hosts invested (actually consumed) in themselves instead of their farm. Guest will surely repay them generously – the lodgings is in decline…

Their approach to motoring is and probably will be beyond my comprehension. Idiotic attachment to German makes of second-hand jalopies is one aspect. Another is moving everywhere by car. Some city dwellers suffer from the same affliction – they drive four hundred metres to the nearest shop. If I had to bring thirty kilograms of cement I’d surely drive too, but to buy a loaf of bread, few rolls, milk and yoghurt? Such distances are covered by foot – I have my own definition of such distance, which is one mile (like stone’s throw), sometimes I use Polish yardstick and stretch it up to two kilometres. According to one of the British researches carried out in 2000 I’ve read a few years ago about one fourth of car journeys is shorter than a mile – giving the up would contribute to the reduction of road congestion!

That’s a big pity that cycling paths are still underdeveloped in Poland, currently I rather cycle by pavements rather than by roads, although my favourite place is still the roadside. I came to conclusion there was no point in hampering the life Polish complacent drivers… Coming back to motoring patterns – the motive behind is probably to show off…

Visit to the local shop is also a stressful experience. What outwardly seems to be hilarious in infuriating – locals stripped of any kind of entertainment (leaving out three channel of television) can spend hours on daily shopping. They look around, can’t make any decision. My dear lady, could you show me this and that, and maybe also that, no, sorry, I’m short of money, I’ll buy it on account… And a tourist from the remote capital gets hot under the collar… In Warsaw as we run off our feet we get onto the shop, before we enter we already know what we want to buy, we ask for it, pay and get out, but we have our time as “scarce commodity”, they’re trying to pass the time…

Some of us divide Poland into Polska A and Polska B. Some, like my neighbour who’s right now singing karaoke behind the wall earn in Poland A to spend in Poland B and pride themselves in being provincial. Wiżajny where I spent those few days is even Polska C in many terms, but in the high season all the shops raise prices and adjust them to Warsaw standards, the village makes living of the tourist and the local have no other choice but to earn in Poland B (or C) and spend in the temporary enclave of Poland A.

The next semi-spiritual post coming soon…