Kultur 4

I really liked the article about crossing the street in Germany, since I'm one of those pedestrians who walks whenever I want to regardless of what's going on around me (this is especially hilarious since when I'm in a car or on my bike, I actively despise pedestrians who do this). Looks like I would probably be killed over there. The part about cars speeding up to play chicken with the pedestrian reminded me a lot of Montreal, where I lived for the last three years. There, crossing the street whenever you feel like it is a given, but I've still seen many Montrealers in cars speed up or even switch lanes to try to give pedestrians a scare. Maybe the Quebecers and Germans should bond over this.

I also thought it was pretty interesting that public transportation runs on the honor system for the most part. Except, it's absolutely terrifying that you could end up being so publicly humiliated if you get caught without a ticket - I guess that's why the system works.

And I'm very jealous of the German bike lanes. I was always too scared to bike in Montreal because it seemed highly likely that I would be run over in an instant. Biking in Ann Arbor is pretty nice, but the idea of having bike lanes all over the city is amazing!