Development of the
transport has been very long. It began a long time ago. In times from which we
do not have any records. First there were animals. Many later on there are cars
and bigger vehicles suitable for more people, like is for exp. train. And these
bigger vehicles is something hat we now can call public transport. I am going
to speak about public transport, here in Bratislava.
I´m glad, that from Slovak cities, I live here, because we have many ways how
to travel in our city and you really can go everywhere almost without any
problems.
Public transport
Bratislava's public
transport system consists of 11 tram lines (numbered 1 through 14), 11
trolleybus lines (numbered 201 through 212) and 77 bus lines (59 day lines
numbered 20 to 99, 151, 191, X12 and X50 , 20 night lines numbered N21 to N95).
The trams operate mainly in the centre of the city, trolleybuses mainly around
the hilly parts and buses all around the city and its suburbs.
For me, the best choice is tram. It is fact that trams are mainly in the center
of city and some close places but it is the fastest I think. For example when
you´re in the tram and there is some traffic jam, tram has nothing to do with
it, because tram has its own rails so it can avoid to this traffic jam. Than
trolleybuses are quite good transport, mainly if you want to go somewhere to
the higher latitude of the city. Even if they do not pollute our earth so much,
travelling with them is as uncomfortable as with normal buses. Buses have the advantage that they really go
to the each smallest corner of the city but that´s all. And the worst is that
this fact can´t equilibrate all the other things thanks to which travelling by
bus is so terrible. They are dirty. They usually smell because of people,
because of their sweat and the worst smell is when there is some homeless or
gipsy. When this situation happens you rather go out and wait for another bus.
Another thing are seasons, in summer there is terribly hot and this smell is
much worse because people sweat more and, unfortunately, the bus is again
crowded so there is person on person and it is really disgusting. And if you
think that during winter it is better, you´re wrong. There is cold everywhere
and what´s worse there´s no air, because people want to save a little but
warmer bus so windows are not open, buses are crowded and people use up all the
air. But I can´t be so unfair. We can be happy we have here public transport in
spite the fact that tickets starts to be quite expensive and services are not
appropriate.
The ticketing system requires passengers to purchase tickets ahead of the
journey either in ticket machines (coins only) at public transport stops or at newsstands.
Bus, tram and trolleybus drivers do NOT sell tickets. Basic tickets are SKK 14
for journeys with scheduled duration of up to 10 minutes and SKK 18 for
journeys up to 30 minutes. One-hour transfer ticket is SKK 22. A separate
ticket is required for large luggage. Children under the age of 6 travel for
free and under the age of 15 at a 50% discount. Value fares of one day to one
week are also available from SKK 90 to SKK 310. Public transport is free for
visitors who purchase Bratislava's official Bratislava City Card (SKK 200 ),
SKK 300 or SKK 370 for 1, 2 or 3 days
respectively). For night buses operating after 11.30 p.m. two one-hour tickets
at SKK 22 each are required (or one ticket for holders of monthly
transportation passes).
Immediately upon entering the vehicle passengers must mark their tickets by
inserting them in the orange marking machines. These will stamp the time of
entry. Ticket inspectors carry out spot checks around the clock and are fond of
fining tourists the SKK 1400 fine if they do not follow the procedures outlined
above to the letter.
Once I heard a statement that our public transport should be for free and I
have to say I really disagree. Some of our people would not be able to save
buses clean if they did not pay for them. And of course there would be many,
many homeless or gypsies if they could avoid it. So I think it´s absolutely bad
idea.
Transport by cars, peak hours, traffic jams
This part was just
about public transport in Bratislava, but people, of course, travel by cars.
There are many, many cars mainly if we´re talking about capital city. They´re
more comfortable and more favorable, I think If I could count all the money I
spent for tickets there would be one absolutely new car. And the main thing is
that cars are the fastest. But during rush hours it´s not always true. How I
said, mainly during these rush hours, when all the people travel to work or off
from work and there are traffic jams everywhere because roads are crowded, it´s
faster to go by tram. These rush hours are in the morning from approximately 7.30
till about 9 o´clock when people go to work and then in the evening when people
go home it´s about 4 till 6 o´clock. During this time when there are so many
cars there are more crashes. And so, more traffic jams. I think, traffic jams
are the worst things on the world. They can create everywhere. They used to
create before the custom- house because policemen had to control our passports
but fortunately we are now in Sanghan so it does not take so much time. Than
traffic jams create n the troublemakers mainly during rush hours. Than when
there is some crash. Usually those long traffic jams are caused because of some
big crash. But I think that crash alone
is sometimes not the main problem why there is traffic jam. In my opinion it´s
because people are really curious so they have to stare to the crash a see what
happened and this makes traffic jam even bigger. Of course if there is not
crash through the whole road. Or they create when something is destroyed on the
road and it has to be fixed.
Troublemakers
Troublemakers are
those parts of roads where are the biggest number of cars. The worst
troublemakers on the roads are crossroads. There are traffic lights, people
from each side and they have to stop here and wait. And this makes the way to
and off the work slower and longer. But they are definitely needed. If they
were not here there would be a big chaos. Other big troublemakers are bridges
because cars drive here from more traffic lines. And it makes traffic slower
also because in some countries they use process called zip, it means that cars
go one to one from one line and than another but here in Bratislava people are
hurry and they do no care about others so those who go from side line have
miserable chance to get there fast. And this is how I mentioned, also when
something happened on the road and it has to be fixed. They close one line and there is just one for
all cars and on the other hand those cars which go from some side go to the
front and those which stand in the back are slower.
I think that other troublemaker may be parking. In our city is really hard to
park. When you wan tot go somewhere in the middle of a day, you have no chance.
There are cars everywhere, because not all the companies have their own parking
places. For example Polus made its car park for many exactly because many cars
used to park there and there were no place for customers.
Commuting
Commuting is the process of travelling between one's place of residence and regular
place of work. Students who are enrolled at a college or university but who live off-campus are also typically
referred to as commuters. Those people can commute by many ways. For example by
trains, inter-city buses, cars, bicycle, motorbike what can be quite hard
because there is usually cold, or sometimes a company can mediate transport for
their employers. Than, there are trains. They are probably the most adventurous
if you do not have a car. Some of them are dirty mainly here in Bratislava, but
some of them are clean it depends on where you go. They are good in way how
trams. No traffic jams. And they are quite fast.
I think in my future I want to live near my job. First I can sleep more and
mornig travelling is really bad as a beginning of a day.
In conclusion I think that transport in our city is not so bad. It could be worse. For example like in Africa where people have to run to school or work. We can be glad that we have at least something. I asked many my friends if they like public transport here in Slovakia and the answer were everywhere the same. Maybe sometimes is good when you every morning travel with the same people and there is some nice boy or something like that. But this is the only positive thing. Even I forced my mum to go once with me with bus just for fun and she was so scared that she since that time loves her car much more. But we just have no choice. And fortunately we sometimes can use our parents instead of taxies so the last thing is that our generation has quite good opportunities for transport in our Small-Big city Bratislava.