The Man in Seat 61

Message to Corfu Forums:

In the last 18 months we've travelled to Corfu four times, first by air, then by air, train and ferry and by train and ferry only. For train and ferry information visit the award winning website The Man in Seat 61
Contact me and I'll be happy to send examples of itineraries with prices for our recent journeys between Birmingham and Corfu and inexpensive places to stay in, for instance, Rome or Brindisi, if you're not sleeping on train or ferry. I'm used to flying but I'm interested in reducing my carbon footprint. In 2007 Trains and ferries seem expensive when compared to package air fares, but we anticipate cost differences between slow and fast travel getting less. Regards, Simon

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E-mail:

Do you drive a car?

Reply:

I drive occasionally. Used to enjoy it, but got to dislike it more and more as the roads filled up and Jeremy Clarkson became popular. I don't like jams, want to avoid speeding and parking fines, hate speedophiles, but don't want to get enmeshed in the regulations that surround driving on the 21st century's closely monitored roads. I'm also aware of the damage our driving does to people and the land. I've come to detest urban sprawl - what's been called 'sloburbia'. Here's my review on Amazon of a book about relieving cities of car dependency.

As someone who doesn't like having their travel restricted I have largely freed myself from my own car and want to free myself from the consequences of other's dependence on cars. But my family drive, taking the test as soon as they could. I'm not religious about it but I prefer cycling or walking all year round and travelling by train and bus. I support Carfree Cities. Simon

Extract from my review in Local Government Studies, December 1999, of Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence by Peter Newman & Jeffrey Kenworthy (1999): The car, once it ceased to be an indulgence of the rich, always represented a balance between liberation and dependency. Today, the choices promised by cars are linked transparently to those they take away. Everyone knows about exhaust emissions and most drivers, outside advertisements, experience worsening road conditions. There is growing despondency among those who would like to use their cars less. They realise alternatives won't work unless people switch in large numbers to other ways of getting around. But the public space needed to take to the streets to walk or cycle and take trains and buses is unavailable. Many see public space as hazardous for themselves, and perilous for their children. Deprivations long imposed on people without cars apply, with increasing force, to people with them. New technology may reduce vehicle emissions. It cannot recover the enormous interaction space taken out of circulation by road traffic. Before that lost social space can become available for people outside cars, a legal and moral space has to be reclaimed.

In 2006 the global car industry put more cars on the road than ever, but more and more cities are pushing to decrease their dependence on cars, make better use of land and improving public transport.

Indulgence of the rich: my grandmother smoking a cheroot

Indulgence of the new rich: threading the jams

Roller coaster

From: treaclemine2004 Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 06:14:22
To:GreenBirmingham@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Means and Ends
Greetings ... What could ever make it politically acceptable for close monitoring, detailed tracking and surveillance of the movements of the general population? How can such an intrusive and authoritarian means be right when our ends are supposed to be socially and environmentally just? There are good, just, simple and fair ways to do this. GPS isn't one. Thank you, Amanda

Dear Amanda. I’m not just talking of restricting other's freedoms, but of winning support for new laws that will affect my family, pushing us towards sustainable ways to make a living and enjoy life. I may provide an imperfect example but unless governments move to a war footing I cannot see changes in behaviour being adopted.
To add to the depth of my inconsistency (not hypocricy - I don't see myself as better) we have a home in Greece to which we occasionally fly though I prefer slower travel by rail and ferry.
I’m part of a network of relatives who treat my concern about reducing carbon footprints with affectionate tolerance. I enjoy them too much to rain on a family parade.They fly the world. They use phone conferencing more than they did, but they rely on cars. Several are in businesses that thrive on consumerism. The most liberal approve a congestion charge. It clears the roads for driving. We're on a runaway rollercoaster. It’s scary when I look around but my fellow passengers - people I love - are enjoying a longer ride for their money. I join in - yelling and laughing with the rest. Looking down I glimpse people still on the ground. They stare upwards – not resenting our fecklessness, nor relieved at avoiding our fate or anxious they might be hit by the debris of our fall – but gazing at our rushing progress to disaster with looks of admiring envy.

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker actually came to the nuts outside our kitchen window just now but Jackdaws are my favourite birds. Of all the crows they seem to rejoice in flight as well as getting into conversation with humans. Jim was a great uncaged companion. Until he flew off to mate he was my mate. I found him as a fledgling fallen from his nest unable to fly and he stayed around with me for about 6 months in 1951. My mum took the picture on a visiting weekend at my boarding school in Sussex. Jackdaws enjoy playing with shiny objects and other small household items, which gives them a reputation as thieves. My impression is that they are actually always checking out whether this or that trifle might be suitable for a nest. Konrad Lorenz' sketches, in 'King Solomon's Ring', where he has a chapter on the birds, capture what I noted in Jim better than any photos I've seen. The Jackdaw mentality in humans refers to a tendency to collect trivia in the fruitless hope that all may come together to explain the meaning of life.