"An Adventure Abroad" by Jessica Haaga

I  have now been in Brookings, South Dakota, for two weeks and so far I have had a blast. Of course there is a huge difference both culturally and socially, but it is a good life experience. The only thing that truly bothers me is the transportation around here. Or maybe I should say the lack thereof. Just to do a comparison between Sweden and America is quite easy but to understand why America has this strange system is harder.  I will start with comparing the big cities where public transportation is more common in each country.

In San Francisco the town is full with a variety of public transportation such as buses, underground railway and streetcars. It also combines the city with others via suburban trains. This way of transportation suits the 3.4 million people that live in San Francisco perfectly.  It is also easy for foreigners to get a hold on the system because of its webpage that tells you everything you need and want to know about public transportation in and around San Francisco. 

“The streetcar in San Francisco will take you around downtown" 

They also use a ferry that will take you to places such as Napa Valley and Oakland, where you also can ride an out of state bus to.

Sweden`s correspondence to San Francisco is a city in the south called Gothenburg. With its population of up to a half a million people this makes Gothenburg one of the largest cities in Sweden, Stockholm is the largest one with its population being nearly 900,000 people downtown. From Gothenburg you can go by ferry to both Denmark and Norway. The city has a “Gothenburg City Card” that gives you the opportunity to get on all the transportation without buying a ticket each time.  

When I compare a smaller town, since Brookings can hardly count as a big town, I have decided to compare it with my recent hometown called Kalmar. It lies in the south and borders Öland, an island famous for their windmill. The population in Kalmar vary since it is, just like Brookings, a university city, but for the most part the population lies at 35,000 people during the school semester. In Kalmar we have a train station that will take us both north and south. We have busses that go all the way to Stockholm and back down to Malmö (a city connected to Denmark by a bridge). Within the city center we have busses that go every 20 minutes during daytime and 30 minutes during the night shift. Though, riding your bike is the most efficient form of transport around town, for no cars are allowed in the cities center. In Brookings there are sidewalks among almost every road, which is a good thing, though we don´t have a car and the fact that it only takes us 20 minutes to walk over to Wal-Mart makes a car unnecessary. 

 

Sweden is a country with an area of 450,000 km² making it as big as California, although the population differs by about 40 million people. The Swedish population is use to public transporting in a whole different way. So why is it that the public transportation works in Sweden and large parts of Europe but not the US?

            First of all, we have to understand that while Europe was expanding and starting to interact between countries with trading, the US always kept their trading relatively local. People seemed to be able to take care of themselves by just going to their neighbor and trade meat for milk. The idea of a new country being born made people from Europe want to immigrate and to live a life of freedom. You were no longer forced to stay and be treated badly at work, because if that happened you could just move and find happiness somewhere else in this huge unexplored country. This also led to a population density that forced people not to interact with one and another. With this thought growing it became socially acceptable to be totally dependent on your car. These days almost every American with a driver license, outside the huge cities, has their own car. To start and build a railroad now would cost the public a lot of money and since the gas is so cheap here in comparison to the European price it does not seem as effective to have a railway going throughout the country as it does for everyone to just own a car. In Sweden you would have to pay 2.26 US dollars to get 0.26 gallons (9/3/2013). Compared to here, you just have to pay 3.80 for a whole gallon.

            Also the size of the US has a big influence on either taking the train or your car. It is “cheaper” to fly across the country if you count in the time that it would take to get on a bus or a train.

            The Swedish government helps the Swedish transportation companies by giving them a contribution in various forms. The most increasing demands involve the environment and to keep it “green”. Companies get money so that they can repair or buy new public transportation. This change results in cheaper trips for the residents. The government has also initiated a congestion tax in Stockholm and Gothenburg to keep the traffic out of the city center. There have been suggestions to introduce congestion taxes in the larger cities in USA. Among the pilot cities was San Francisco, where they plan to carry through the suggestion in 2015. With the money from student tuition they want to increase the sidewalks and bicycle lanes.

            So my conclusion of all this is that even though the environment would improve if people used public transportation, I don’t think that there will be a change in not using your car.