Nissan Over the 95

After returning home from a study abroad trip what is the first thing you would want to do? Get a hug from your parents? Go eat at your favorite restaurant? Well, for me, the first activity I wanted to do was drive my car.

While living in Europe, I relied solely on public transportation, including buses, trams, metros and trains. It makes sense to have more public transportation since Belgium is a country with a surface area of only 11,849 mi² and has more densely populated areas than its American counterpart. To put it in perspective, my home state of North Carolina 53,819 mi², making it about 4.5 times larger than the country of Belgium. Public transportation in Brussels provides many great services for its inhabitants, my experiences abroad left me longing to drive my own car.

First, public transportation can get crowded quickly, especially when taking the regular 8 am or 8:30 bus to the Luxembourg stop. Being squished between to grown men and feeling people breathe on your skin is not how I would choose to start my mornings. Many times, I struggled to find a place to put my grocery bag or backpack when on the way to work. One day on my way to work, I was yelled at in French by a woman asking me to put my backpack on the floor because I accidentally bumped into her, an action I am quite certain happens on a daily basis bag or not. After looking down at the sticky floor, I decided to wear my bookbag in front of me, making it more difficult to hold onto the railings.

In addition to overcrowding, in light of the current COVID-19 outbreak, public transportation does not seem to be the most reliable or safe option either. The Brussels Times reports that public transportation in Brussels is taking measures to reduce transportation services, including cutting public transport by 50% on the weekends. While social distancing is practiced to contain the virus, individuals still need to get groceries and other activities that require them to come into contact with people. Private modes of transportation, more common in the United States, are safer for the individual and keeps him/her from being exposed to other individuals who may carry the virus. Furthermore, I am not forced to wait 25 minutes for a ride to the grocery store due to delays or strikes because I have my own car.

Throughout my semester abroad, one of my goals was to become more systems aware, to understand how ideas, objects, or practices are interrelated across what formerly appeared as clear borders or distinct differences. Using public transportation taught me more about how public transportation is at the heart of European cities. Although I still prefer transportation in the United States, using public transit gave me time to reflect on my normal practices and how my actions contrast those of an average European. In the United States, we are socialized to think owning a car is normal which is why the country has the highest vehicle-to-person ration in the world, 1:1.3, but in Belgium, there are fewer cars in use than half of the country’s population.

Spending the last two months in Brussels forced me to think about my transportation habits and realize that my personal car has many negative qualities such as putting more pollution into the environment than the average Belgian citizen. However, my car embodies freedom and independence. When I got my license at 16, it was a rite of passage, just like my cousins had done before me and I would not want to trade it for public transportation. Europe can keep its trams, metros,

and trains, I’ll be sticking to my Nissan.