Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Adapting could mean the end for the American energy wasting lifestyle

In the last month, my San Francisco friends who are receiving modest Social Security benefits and have no official income received a total of six credit offers in the mail, like: “Call 1-800…and receive a line of credit.” I am not sure what would have happened if this call was made, but it is amazing that, even after months of a grave credit crisis, offers like these are sent to people with no income. How hard is it to realize that immigrants with no credit history and no income can take the offered credit and go back home tomorrow?

It will be tough for Americans to switch to crisis mode quickly.

Many people may have heard the famous phrase, “everything is big an America.” It is true with dishes you are offered at restaurant and the sizes of clothes that you can find in an American store. It is also true with the size and number of cars that the average U.S. family owns.

With the exception of America’s biggest cities, like New York and Chicago, the United States has no decent public transportation. The nation is a very suburban country. If you leave a big city and have no car, mobility in life, for the most part, stops.

Yes, there are buses. But they come roughly every 30 minutes and stop every 50 meters. It would have been almost faster to walk -- if there were sidewalks for that. The suburban cities are only suited to people with cars.

No wonder that people are forced into driving. They drive to the post office, to the grocery, to the bank, to the doctor, to get a haircut … they drive, drive, and drive. To lead a normal life of a working or a family person, you must have a car to survive.

In contrast, having a car in Kyiv is more of a hindrance than help. People owning a car in Kyiv do so for many various reasons, even though driving is neither efficient nor reliable in the city. With many roads still unfitted for the staggering number of cars, you risk being stuck in a traffic jam for hours.

In my view, owning a car in Kyiv still carries a social status connotation from the Soviet and early post-Soviet days when a tiny percentage of the population could afford owning a car. So, to affirm one’s belonging to the “upper class,” many people are willing to put aside an hour or two for “traffic time.”

Kyiv’s public transportation is several light years ahead of its American “big city” alternative on both reliability and affordability. Though crowded in rush hour, the Kyiv subway is the best way to get around the city. The trains come roughly every minute during rush hour. So, even if you fail to push yourself into the train on the first attempt, you can be sure to do so on the next one and still make it to work on time.

There are many alternative means of public transportation that have similar routes, so usually you are free to choose what to take: subway, marshrutka, bus, trolleybus or a tram. In case you get really desperate, you are also welcome to “thumb a ride” from a bypassing car. You will usually get a ride for a modest amount of hryvnias. You might also make a new friend.

These methods, including hitchhiking, are not commonly accepted in America, where public transportation is badly underdeveloped and cannot meet the requirements of a busy schedule.

Here is proof: when the state of Georgia encountered a severe gasoline shortage after the recent hurricanes, people could not switch to alternative means of transportation.

With dozens of cars lining up at empty gas stations, it was impossible for people to get to work and get their kids to school. The local government ended up closing schools for a few days.

Adopting the idea of Kyiv marshrutkas, with their flexibility of stopping on request and accepting payment passed from the back of the bus, would be a striking innovation in the United States.

So, all this leads me to a thought: with the alarming U.S. trade deficit and dependence on foreign oil, which have led to record-high gasoline prices until recently, it is obvious that Americans have to save on gas.

But are there any means to save, even if Americans wanted to?

Lena Redko, a Kyiv native, lives in San Francisco and is studying for a master’s in business administration at the University of San Francisco. She can be reached at bonjourlena@yahoo.com.