Vienna

I recently went to Vienna for a bicycle conference. The conference was great as was the city of Vienna. Of course, I expected Vienna to be a nice city with great food and palpable history. There are rows upon rows of impressive stone buildings fronted by bronze and stone statues. Vienna has a lot to commemorate. It was besieged by the Turks twice, once in 1520 and again in 1683. It was home to Mozart, Freud, Klimt and the Hapsburg dynasty. It has great beer, good food, awesome sweets and friendly people. It struck me how most Viennese spoke great English. I sometimes feel guilty that I'm not able to speak the language of the country I'm in, however, I've come to realize that it's much easier to learn other languages when you live in countries that are the size of states rather than the size of continents. Vienna is close to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary and most Austrians are at least bilingual if not trilingual.

Increasing pedestrian space

The street as one's living room

Protected sidewalk cafe

  As an American, I immediately begin making comparisons between American cities and European. And now that I live in Japan, I add Japanese cities to my points of reference. It's easy to get caught up in the pleasantness and beauty of European cities and forget something important about them. The reason they are so pleasant is because they are designed as if people mattered. Sidewalks are wide and tree lined. Cafes, an extension of inside to outside space and vice versa, are everywhere, the central plaza is closed to cars all year round and elsewhere, priority is given to bicycles and public transportation of which I saw a number of modes: bike-share, subway, trams, articulated buses and trains. 

 European cities are proof that city life doesn't have to be unpleasant if you put people first. I believe that it's only a matter of time before the United States wakes up to this fact as well. In fact we're already starting to see signs of it in New York and Washington D.C. with their popular bike share programs, widening space for pedestrians and cyclists and shrinking room for cars. With the Republican mayor of Indianapolis introducing a connected cycle network in just the past year, we're seeing a real sea-change, proof that people friendly transportation is possible given some foresight and the political will.

People, bikes, trams, cars layout

Bike pedestrian path

Vignette

Today I took the Nikko Line to Shimotsuke Osawa and walked to a new restaurant. The food was good, the owner was pleasant, we had a nice chat; he told me that he was moving into an old style Japanese farm house in December. He's doing all the work himself. Mentioned that he was a carpenter as well as a cook. I look forward to eating there when they open.

What struck me today was a vignette on the train home. I was seated opposite a young family of six. That in itself is unusual. Usually two children seems to be the norm for most Japanese. Four young children is unusual. As we chugged along, the oldest girl, maybe she was six or seven, was being very attentive to her little brother of perhaps one. He was motioning that he was thirsty so she gave him a drink from a sippy-cup. He beamed at her. She beamed at him. He was in a good mood and she played with him, smiling, scrunching his cheeks, mentioning to her mom how cute her little brother was. He beamed and beamed. Her little sister of about three, obviously thought I was either strange or fascinating. She slouched on her bench and looked right at me. I waved at her and said hello. She became very shy then, turning to her mom for reassurance. The whole family was so good at taking care of each other. No one seemed stressed out or cranky. Does this just happen? Did I happen to catch them at a good time? They seemed very authentic. They exuded an aura of calm and innocence. It was my balm for the day. Just what I needed.