Transportation is a big part of our lives, it is a way of how we are being transported from one place to another. Often involves how, when and where. In Switzerland, it is known that the train, boats, trams and buses always depart and arrive on time. Having to grown up in Taiwan and the West side of the US, where I was surrounded by international friends and family. And perhaps having warmer weather adds another factor to being more relaxed and chilled. Time was always a blur. If you say to meet at 3pm usually people arrive around 310pm. It is unlikely that people will show up before 255pm. Punctuality is the norm here — especially with the transportations, they do not wait for you. I was quite amazed by how being precise made things a lot simpler. Over a period of time, it gives a sense of safety, respect, prediction and most importantly, self-responsibility. Contrarily, it could come off as boring, too structured and triggers for anxiety when things do not go right. There has been a few complaints in the past that Swiss started to complain because the train are two or three minutes late. I guess once you are accustomed to good quality, it is hard to not to become attached to it.

I want to writea bout a few experience I’ve had so far with the transportation here in Switzerland. I have lived here for a little more than 6 months, long enough that make short descriptions on what happened so far. First of all, it is relatively self-organized. Living here in Basel, the roads often consist of cars, trams and bikes pathways without distinctive lines to specify which goes where. Some roads have parking on the side of the roads and do not consist of clear line of upcoming traffic. That means, on the road you not only have to be aware of pedestrians, you also have to be aware of other cars, bikes, and trams. And the Swiss are quite clever, near the school area, the roads often have side parking diagonally, that means you always have to drive around the parked cars which will automatically slow you down. Reducing to minimal resources yet being effective is the best talent of being a Swiss.

If you are like me, who never lived in big cities before, first time riding the bicycles on the same road with trams and cars could be quite scary. Are they going to run me over? I might as well stop to let them go first. The difference in lifestyle can be so harsh sometimes. They just started to have metropolitan bikes in the cities in Taiwan recent years, but there are no rules on where the bikes should go exactly. So it be a nightmare when encountering reckless drivers, so best to stay on the side walk. In the US, you absolutely do not need to worry about that! Roads are too big for you to have an accident anyway. Plus, I always got around driving in a car. So as I road home with my bike one night, I hear tram driving right behind me. I started to paddled quickly, assuming the faster I go, the less likely I’ll get run over. That was my first response, until I glanced over my shoulders, I noticed the tram driver carefully slowed down and going with my bike pace. I felt slightly embarrassed, never have I granted such a respect being a biker! If they treat everyone with such patience and still managed to be punctual, I must give them an applause for being self-organized.

Secondly, public transportation network here is tricky with honesty. When going on transportation here in Switzerland, your ticket will most likely not go through a machine to be validated. Except when you get caught, the fine to travel without a ticket is 120 CHF. So I guess some people choose not to pay at all, which is rare, and maybe they get caught once in a while and the fine would add up to what they would normally spend in total anyway. So in the end it is fair. The interesting thing I witnessed the other day was the public transportation conductors were dressed and acted like normal people who hop onto the trams, as soon as they tram doors are locked and heading to the next stop, they would bust out identification to check your tickets. I was told each tram compartment would have one conductor so no one can escape. It is pretty cool to watch how their work is done.