📘 Part 3: Traveling and transportation

This episode's vocabulary

Fumes (plural noun) - strong, unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous gas or smoke.

Emission (noun) - the act of sending out gas, heat, light, etc.

Vastly (adverb) - very much.

Mode (noun) - a way of operating, living, or behaving.

To traverse (verb) - to move or travel through an area.

Overhaul (noun) - the act of repairing an engine, machine, etc. so that every part works as it should.

Commonplace (adj.) - happening often or often seen or experienced and so not considered to be special.

Conscious (adj.) - awake, thinking, and knowing what is happening around you.

Climate-conscious (adj.) - conscious about climate.

Mainland (noun) - the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it.

Dreadful (adj.) - causing fear, shock, or suffering.

Godsend (noun) - something good that happens unexpectedly, especially at a time when it is needed.

Thrilled (adj.) - extremely happy about something.

Bypass (noun) - a road built around a town or village so that traffic does not need to travel through it.

Degradation (noun) - the process in which the beauty or quality of something is destroyed or spoiled.

Mass transport (noun) - a system of vehicles such as buses and trains that operate at regular times on fixed routes and are used by the public.

To counteract (verb) - to reduce or remove the effect of something unwanted by producing an opposite effect.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, Rory, are you ready, ready?

R: I'm ready, ready.

M: Roro, do you think air pollution comes mostly from cars?

R: Well, that will likely depend entirely on what kind of air pollution we're talking about. My understanding is the air fumes from vehicles are different from the emissions produced by mining and industry, which are vastly more polluting by comparison, at least I think so.

M: Do people need to change their way of transportation to protect the environment?

R: It's a good question, to be honest. The easy answer is to say yes it will. However, I think environmental protection is more complex than that. If we changed our modes of transport, but not how we generated power or how we lived, then I think it would be irrelevant in terms of the overall change made, wouldn't it?

M: Which mode of transport is more popular in your country, a bicycle or a car?

R: Definitely cars without a shadow of a doubt. There are great distances between towns and cities that are almost impossible to traverse by bike for the vast majority of people. And given the weather at certain times of year, it might even be dangerous to try for those who can make the journey.

M: How do most people travel long distances in your country?

R: Well, like I said, mostly by car, though train is also an option if you can afford it. Actually, these days we're in a strange position where air travel is cheaper than rail travel. It was like that even before the pandemic due to the efficiency and other considerations when it comes to air travel.

M: Do you think it's going to be the same in the future?

R: Well, in the near future yes. I can't think of anything that would cause any changes. But if we talk about it in the long term, then I think there will be major overhauls made to the rail system, especially given how inefficient it is now.

M: Have the types of transport people use changed much over the last few decades?

R: Well, aside from air travel becoming commonplace, perhaps there are more cars on the road and more bikes since the population has grown. And people are becoming more climate-conscious. I'm not sure about sea travel, though. It always seems to be in a low priority unless you live off the mainland. But that isn't most people in my country.

M: What about E-Scooters? Are they popular in your country?

R: They are and they're dreadful.

M: Why?

R: Because they're really unsafe, they're unsafe for the people riding them. You don't have the training, and they're difficult to maintain, and then the risk of accident is much higher. People think they're some sort of godsend, but in fact, they actually cause more problems or have caused more problems than they were probably designed to fix to be honest with you.

M: Do you think they are here to stay, these E-Scooters?

R: I hope not. But it seems like people are quite taken with them. And I'm not particularly thrilled at that prospect. And neither are many other older people.

M: What kinds of improvements have there been in transports in your country in recent years?

R: I suppose that probably depends on what you mean by improvement. The government added a lot of bypasses to reduce travel times by car. And I think that train lines are more efficient, because they upgraded the technology, but I'm hardly an expert in these things. And even with the upgrades, the trains still don't run efficient.

M: How do you think people will travel in the future?

R: Well, it's sort of like I said earlier. In the short term, I doubt much will change beyond slight reductions and increases in the areas that I mentioned. In the long term. If things continue developing as they are, then we could see fantastic changes like orbital elevators, and skyhooks, and hyperloops. Of course, transport will still be air and ground-based, but in radically different forms from what it's like now.

M: Do you think that more people will prefer private vehicles in the future rather than public transport?

R: Well, I think people will always prefer a private option if they have a choice, but I don't think they're going to have that choice in the future.

M: Why? Why not?

R: Well, it seems like the use of private transport has contributed a great deal to environmental degradation. And so it makes more sense to use methods of mass transport to, well, to counteract this.

M: And which method of mass transport would be the most popular one?

R: Well, if we talk about my country, probably the train or, well, between cities, it would be the train, in cities, it would be buses.

M: Thank you very much for your lovely answers!

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