The EuroCars

These cars are tiny, I mean Mr. Bean tiny. When walking around Florence especially, we would joke about just flipping cars over for fun..but it really looked possible. Some smaller than SmartCars, some didn’t even have a steering wheel but rather one seat in the front with some modified handlebars to steer with. The cars pretty much have to be small to deal with some of the ridiculously narrow alleyways. They do have nice cars of course.. The taxi’s all over Rome and Amsterdam were Benzs; new ones at that.

As much as we laughed about it, it would be better for America if more people drove smaller cars. Or biked! Biking is more common in most of these cities than it is even in San Fran, and that’s saying a lot. Maybe its cause our cities are bigger/more spread out. Maybe its because we are lazier. I dunno, but seeing so many people biking around makes places like Florence or Basel feel very quaint and laid-back. These cities have a slower pace of life with less urgency and focus on work. This may not jive with the American  Dream, but im sure it would make a lot of us happier and live longer. Still is funny to see a grown man in a suit riding a bike tho.

Another good thing about the small cars; you probably won’t die when they hit you. That’s a great benefit when you look at the pedestrians here, at least in Basel. There are no ‘Walk-Don’t walk signs’, no stop signs, you just go. “You walk and the car will stop” the locals tell me. Reaally not as easy as it sounds when you are used to walking around in cities like SF or NYC. A couple times I caused some traffic build up playing “You go first” with drivers here. Ah well, if it comes down to it, I could always Hulk out and flip any SmartCar coming my way. Im not worried