Russia In 2000 and 2012

 

That was then, this is now...

Russia has changed since 2000.  I see that people are getting by better.  When I arrived there were lines of babuskas near the open air market trying to sell something.  Working men frequently wore military fatigues. 

Changing motor vehicles...

Most trucks appeared to be former military transport with license numbers painted on the back.  Now we have a range of imports along with domestic GAZ trucks.

St Petersburg is jammed with automobiles.  In 2000 it seemed half the cars were domestic Ladas and Volgas, much of the balance German Mercedes.  Volga stopped production in 2010, as foreign cars took most of their upscale market.

Now along with Ladas and Mercedes are brands from Europe, the US, and Asia.  You’ll see more types than in the West, as Russia has low safety standards and anything that looks good sells.  I believe Russians are the least safety conscious of all people.

Smaller Chinese buses are a big improvement!

Yutong bus pulling away from our street entrance.

In 2012 suddenly it seems the awkward and uncomfortable sardine can mapshutkas are gone, replaced with smaller buses and larger jitneys than before... imported from China.

A larger mapshrutka, the Golden Dragon in St Petersburg

Memories of the old mapshrutkas...

Now people don’t have to stoop while getting to their seats.  In 2000 the jouncing speedy mapchutkas felt like amusement park rides. Climbing in, I often met blasting Russian popular music and I felt I was joining a party of poker faced people.

Often a young woman sat in the seat facing the passengers.  A few passengers sat next to the driver.  People passed their money to the front, the driver sending back change.  A ride in 2000 was 7 rubles, now it’s 33.

In 2000 many women were impeccably dressed while the men looked worn out.  Women now don’t seem as fashionable, but men overall seem healthier.

Corruption is worse...

Corruption is still joked about on television as it’s something everyone has to deal with. 

Alcohol is a curse on the Russian people..

I see fewer men walking down the sidewalk with an open beer in their hands.  Now beer has been reclassified as alcohol, not what was formerly a ‘food stuff’.  That change means that young teens have more trouble buying beer.  Medvedev’s anti-alcohol campaign may be showing results.

Since 2004 beer ads on television were prohibited from showing people or cartoon characters... only the bottle could move around.  As of July 23, 2012, beer commercials are banned from television.  Still, comedians do routines about drunkenness, a topic that in Russia is acceptable for laughs.

My inner clock is having troubles!

This is Russia’s second year with no clock changes.  We have summer time. with an extra hour of evening light. throughout the year.  This situation can at times put us close to two hours off actual solar time.

The good and bad of our apartment...

Our apartment house, like most of the others, has a dismal, unkempt entranceway, and no record  of elevator inspections posted, and the lighting on the stairways and in the hallways is as bad as ever.  But enter many apartments units here and you will find modern well-designed ‘Ot-Europe’  homes.

Our dvor, courtyard, is one of the best in the city.  Arcs of flowering cabbage and cauliflower, nasturtiums, and begonias grace the yard, along with  mature trees.  The playground and exercise equipment is tops, and there are many wooden benches for the old folks to meet and chat.

The view from our balcony

Eating well is a top priority in Russia.

We get top quality produce and meat.  Milk, sour cream, and butter is for sale right outside our courtyard door, fresh from a farm in Leningrad oblast. 

The supermarkets offer a good selection, less adulterated and corrupted than in the West.  Some of my favorites are sea cabbage, smoked fish, and tomato paste from the  south.  Our supermarket has a yearly ascending discount card, but no one clips store coupons as they do in the USA.

A good philosophy and a little luck is what we all need...

It amazes me how helpful strangers are with directions.  Few Russians have that hurry sickness  I frequently saw in the eyes of New Jersey people.

People are calmer.  They don’t admire that aggressive attitude such as shown by Romney in the first presidential debate.

The people I meet at the post office, the stores, and at parties are often helpful and glad to talk.  Even though we have a northern cold wet climate, we have been lucky to be able to live simply without interference.  Russia is an unlikely spot to be happy, but it has worked for us!

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Technorati Tags: GAZ,Lada,Volga,Mercedes,safety,Yutong bus,Golden Dragon bus,mapshrutka,dvor courtyard. elevators.

The Passing of the St Petersburg Tramway

 

Image via Wikipedia  unidentified location

 

I’ve always loved vehicles... cars, buses, tramways, trolleys, ferries, ships, trains, airplanes, helicopters... anything mechanical, historical, and full of implied adventure. 

And, on a silly note, tramways hold an  attraction due to their Dagwood ambiance.

Let’s take the tramway!

If you want to have a sense of a city, you need to experience its transit options... including trams.  That experience means waiting at the curb for your tram to arrive, quickly crossing traffic to your tram, grabbing a poll, and swaying with the other riders.  People pack on and usually stand, although sometimes a wooden seat is free.

Take care when getting off, as car drivers may not stop as required!

What’s a tram?  What’s a trolley?

Tramways run on rails in the city streets, get their power from a pantograph that maintains a flexible connection with an overhead electric wire, and have their speed controlled by a lever manipulated by the driver.  At some points a tram may run on a track away from the road. Trams outperform cars and buses in lifetime energy use for each passenger kilometer ridden.1 

1 Edinburgh Scotland trams 

Trolleys have a steering wheel (instead of a lever).  It usually has a trolley pole, which can disconnect from the the overhead wire.  The conductor then jumps off and with a rope makes the connection again.

Some Tram Experiences

In 1965 I remember riding an exhilarating open tramway in Oslo.  Leaning again a passenger railing, I almost feel over and out when it hit a sharp corner.  I remember the clang of the trolley gong as we eased along.

The seventh grade back in my teaching days of the ‘70s made a yearly spring trip from west Jersey to Philadelphia.  My group always saw the most of Philly, as we included a roundtrip on the tramway through the Southside Italian and Black neighborhood in our time on the town.

We’ve been on tramways also in Helsinki and Prague.  But nothing beats having them available in your own city... St Petersburg!  They are nonpolluting, run slowly, but are usually faster than surrounding car traffic on the same road. 

St Petersburg History, with a twist!

Trams were first pulled by horses in the 1800s. The first  tram electric engine in the world was installed in St Petersburg by Fyodor Pirutsky  and operating successfully throughout September 1880.  The monopoly  Horsecar Stock Company had exclusive rights to operate on St Petersburg streets and saw no need to upgrade.

In the winter of 1894, a new tram company using electric power ran on top of the ice across the Neva to and from the islands of St Petersburg.  The Horsecar Stock Company sued but the judge found that running trams on ice, but not on roads, was allowable!

 

Trams run on the ice of the Neva River.  Karl Bulla, Hermitage museum.

Trams lose out to the car...

Tramways compete for road space with trolleys , buses and cars.  In the USA in the 1950s, General Motors  bought many  streetcar lines to sell motors and oil to them in the short term, but it seems apparent the long range plan was to eliminate this competition to their car and bus products.

People in Smolny (Petersburg city government) and everyday citizens typically view the tramways as potential obstructions, noisy, and  a shaker of riders and the tram itself.  Since the automobile became the top priority around 1995 a large percentage of tramway track has been removed or paved over, especially in the center where the narrow streets make for difficult traffic, and also the close by buildings make echo chambers. 

Well maintained road beds, foundations, and improved tramways would greatly reduce noise and vibration.  My mother-in-law, Tonya, lives near a well constructed, faster, and relatively modern tramway line which is steady and quiet.

More pollution, more traffic problems, little transportation planning...

St Petersburg until the late 1980s had around 340 Kilometers, 211 miles, of track, the largest  length of any tramway system in the world.  Now bit by bit, year by year, it is being destroyed.  Car and bus pollution spoils the air, while car traffic flow is worse than ever.

St Petersburg thinking on tramways is going in the wrong direction!

It’s sad that St Petersburg is giving up an old but constructive technology just as parts of Europe and North America are beginning to appreciate tramways.  Let’s hope attitudes change and tramways can flourish again, at least in those parts of the city with wider roads.

St Petersburg Tramway http://erwin.bernhardt.net.nz/index.html

Let us know what you think!  Just click comments on the very next to last line of this post.

 

Technorati Tags: Tram,trolley,tramway,pantograph,street cautions,trolley pole,tram lever,Oslo,Edinburgh,Philadelphia,trams on ice,Horsecar Stock Company,Fyodor Pirutsky,modern tramways.