TRANSPORT IMPACTS

When you think about going from one place to another, the first mode that probably pops into your head is the fastest one.  So, with this logic, most people would opt for the plane to get from say … Melbourne to Sydney.  This is very quick – one hour, highly energy consuming and you basically exist in a capsule in empty space until you are approaching sydney.  If this isn’t an option, they might head up the hume highway in a car.  This takes a bit longer – 8 hours, still energy consuming, but more passengers making it more efficient, and you exist in a container on a monotonous road with some occasionally beautiful scenery that you whiz by.  If you don’t want to fly or drive, you will generally opt for the train.  It will take a few more hours that the car but you will be consuming a bit less energy and while you’ll be exposed to some social interactions within the carriage, your connection with the environment you pass through will be limited.

A couple of weeks ago, I opted for another travel option, which is almost the exact opposite of the most frequently taken travel option between Melbourne and Sydney.  Instead of taking an aeroplane, I loaded up my bike and headed up north with my cousin.  It took us 12 days, about 300 times longer than a plane.  Sure, we used a lot of energy, but it was all good food (and certain fat stores from my body) and we would have eaten most of it anyway.  And as for where we were during the journey, we chose to take beautiful roads, take only what we needed and slowly pass through some of the most beautiful places in South Eastern Australia.  We had an amazing time, and it beats any plane, train, car or bus trip I’ve ever taken.  In fact, as much as we missed our family and friends, we were kind of sad when we were arriving.

It dawned on me during the trip, that I was finally experiencing A to B rather than just going from A to B.  The maths geek side of me kicked in and realised that a lot of people only experience the world in discrete ways.  They experience one place, then they go to the next and expereience it.  I felt so lucky to get to experience the continuum between every place I go as I ride my bicycle.  To continue with my geek talk (and lose any reader still going), the number of locations I can experience is the cardinality of the continuum, whereas, those that fly, can only ever possibly experience the cardinality of the natural numbers.  So, as Cantor showed, because the cardinality of the continuum is greater than the cardinality of the natural numbers and therefore, I experienced more by cycling up to Sydney than any jetsetter will ever be able to.

Ok, that was both geeky and arrogant, so I’ll just hop back onto my bike and go and find a place to be by myself for a while.