35. The Right to a Car

Probably the consequence of the bad state of public transportation of Germany, and also because driving a car in this country is the equivalent of owning a firearm in the USA, and maybe because I live in Bayern aka Autoland, cars literally are everywhere: on the road day and night 7 days a week, parked or driving.

Germany is definitely not a cyclist and pedestrian country because during sunny winter days, I usually feel alone on the pavement, which can be comfortable as I have the streets for myself.
There are electric cars, but compared to other European countries, Germany is quite behind.
What I also find ridiculous are those "Autobahn" with no speed limits, not only it is well-known as accident prone (because of speed but also because of the poor state of the roads), but also source of higher emissions.
You know where I am going: Germany's green washing.

I have the great pleasure of living in front of a small road, and I do not know which I hate the most: the view of cars parked everywhere on the road that spoils the area, the smell of exhaust emissions from vehicules, the pollution, the sound of engines, the music many many people can listen to in their car at a dangerous level, the fact that the 50km/h limit is rarely respected.

I love using public transportation or my feet in all the countries I lived in where I did not once used a car. But in Bavaria, public transportations are dirty, always late, not always green, very very expensive to the point that is much cheaper to use a car and pay for the car park than buying a return ticket for 6 stops on a direct line on the tram for instance.
Walking is a nightmare because of the pollution emited by vehicules that can be smelled and the loud noise.

Interesting figures from this article in BR24 - August 2025:

• 635 cars for 1000 inhabitants in Bavaria
• 3% of cars are purely electric in Germany

Yeah, Germans love their powerful combustion engine cars.