Among students in Lewis & Clark’s Environmental Studies Program, transit is a popular research subject. Living in Portland, it’s not hard to see why; the city is well known for its public transit system, which includes buses, a light rail system, and a a streetcar. Current ENVS students have transit-related interests ranging from gentrification and transit equity to comparison of the social effects of light rails in Portland and Strasbourg. Although many ENVS projects (transit-related and otherwise) have a Portland focus, students who have studied abroad often tie in their experiences overseas. Having firsthand experience can add a new layer of depth to research projects tied to a given place, and studying abroad certainly allows for meaningful observation. To that end, I thought it would be interesting to look at students’ experiences using different forms of transportation while studying overseas, while keeping current ENVS transit projects in mind.
Our first overseas post comes from Tyler Wayne Patterson, who traveled to Cuba during the spring of 2015. Lewis & Clark has one of the United States’ only overseas study programs in Cuba, and getting to travel the country for an extended period of time is an opportunity few Americans can say they’ve had–although that is changing quickly. Cuba is well known for its classic American cars, relics from the decades before the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s ban on foreign automobiles. In his post, Tyler writes about how these cars are also used as a unique form of transit in Cuba–communal taxis known as boteros. Though boteros run on preset routes and are generally “stripped down to the bare essentials,” as Tyler puts it, they provide an efficient way to get around Cuba. Reading Tyler’s post, it is interesting to consider the intersections of political and economic events that have led to the use of boteros. Though they may seem simple, boteros tell a story of Cuban history from the original importation of American cars to the present-day economic challenges Cubans face in accessing materials to repair their vehicles. They also say something about the inequalities between residents and tourists in Cuba; though boteros seem very cheap to Americans, they are prohibitively expensive for the average Cuban.
Sometimes, the simple act of utilizing mass transit can lead to an interesting story. Such is the case with Spencer Gibson, whose post “Adventure on a Bus” details a rather hectic-sounding bus ride he took while studying in India last fall. Traveling through Kerala, a state on India’s southwestern coast, he experienced the sensation of “careening down steep switchbacks in a near-torrential storm.” Not only that, but their bus was also followed by a group of men (in a red smart-car-sized vehicle, of all things), who then proceeded to get into a skirmish with the bus driver. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, and the experience makes for a very entertaining tale. One thing that stood out to me while reading Spencer’s post was his level of interaction with his surroundings; he could see and hear everything that was going on around him, as well as observe the reactions of his fellow passengers. Many forms of transportation detach people from their surroundings to a certain extent–cars force drivers to keep their eyes on the road, and subways offer only limited glimpses of the outdoors. Being on a bus allowed Spencer to observe and reflect on the events unfolding around him in a way that deepened his understanding and appreciation of the country through which he traveled. However, his experience was also shaped in part by his status as a foreign visitor, which meant he had less context for the situation than his fellow bus passengers from India.
Public transit can not only shape peoples’ experiences in a given moment, but also their perceptions of the city in which they are traveling. Ben Hohman, who studied abroad with me in Berlin last fall, wrote about his experiences using the city’s amazingly comprehensive transit system. Berlin has two major train systems, the S-Bahn (which is mostly above ground) and the U-Bahn (which is mostly underground), as well as buses and tram lines. Using public transportation, it’s extremely easy to get anywhere in the city, as well as sites on the outskirts of Berlin such as Sanssouci Palace and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Ben writes, “Without the transit network, exploring such a large and interesting city as Berlin would be especially daunting,” and I definitely agree. Having access to such a comprehensive network of public transit allowed me to fully experience the city, since I knew that regardless of where I went, I would always be able to get back home on the U-Bahn or S-Bahn. The rail lines also shaped my mental map of Berlin, changing the way I understood and navigated the city.
Many people think of transit as a personal matter, a simple means of getting where they need to go. Others consider public transportation in ecological terms, viewing it as a necessity for reducing oil consumption and carbon emissions. In reading these posts, it becomes clear that transit systems also have historical and sociological dimensions, as well as personal implications that go beyond getting from Point A to Point B. Clearly, both students overseas and students in the Environmental Studies Program recognize that whether you’re in Portland or halfway across the world, transit isn’t as simple as it seems.