Traffic, love and hate
By Dientje van Dongen
Thinking about traffic, the first image that springs to mind appears to always be clogged up ways with too many cars stuck in traffic. My second thought therefore always is, how to avoid this? Especially when taking a city trip, the last thing you want to be doing is seeing one side of the Big Ben from the top of a windy tourist bus for 20 minutes long.
A first idea is of course is to take the tube. Every self-respecting city has one these days, and it is without a doubt the easiest way to get from A to B quick and dry. I do hear my friends complaining about the difficulty of deciphering a tube map, but honestly, the main thing required is logical thinking and even my 7 year-old cousin had that capability. I do however have one major downside to using the tube, and that is the view. Because although you save a lot of time, its fair enough to say that I would indeed rather look at sweet old Big Ben for 20 minutes than the several shades of grey of the underground tunnels.
So, unless you are in a hurry or if you need to cover a bit of length in a short time, I am an advocate for walking. You truly get to know a city by feet. The hassle and bustle on the streets, small markets, random city people. If I would have taken the tube in New York to simply get from the Met to Central Park and then back to Central Station again, I would have missed out on the real New York City vibe, a vibe one can only truly experience when one is with both feet on the ground.