Car-Free Living in Germany (for a BETTER quality of life)

The U.S. is a car dependent nation. When I lived there, I was constantly frustrated by traffic and having to drive everywhere for everything. One of the main reasons I moved to Germany was so that I could finally free myself from the automobile. And, believe it or not, you can do this, too! In this video, we look at how, if you move to Germany, you can walk, scoot, bike, or ride a wide variety of trains instead of being burdened by car ownership.

VIDEO CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:01 1) Walking
1:38 2) Scooters
2:46 3) Bicycles
4:12 4) Buses
5:10 5) U-Bahn
6:02 6) Streetcars
7:02 7) S-Bahn
7:59 8) Regional Trains
8:47 9) ICE
9:54 10) Car Share
10:31 Conclusion

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– Why Life is BETTER in Germany – https://youtu.be/kKwOknkr4Xw

Have you ever been sitting in endless traffic and thought, “Man,
I really hate this. Why am I doing this every day? I wonder if my life could be different?”
Or have you ever looked at how much money you’re spending on your car every month
and thought, “Wow, what can I do to reduce these costs?” Well, if you have
I’ve got some great news for you. Not only is living car free possible,
but it’s a reality for millions of people in Germany. And you could live car free here too. It’s a great way to save money
and improve your quality of life. In this video, we’re going to look at ten
alternatives to driving in Germany to help you envision
what a car free life looks like. One quick note: Since I live in Berlin,
I’m going to focus on the options here. But rest assured, these options are also available
in most cities throughout Germany. Okay, los geht’s. For short distances. The first and most obvious alternative
to driving is, of course, walking. But for walking to be an option,
you have to live in a place where it’s safe
and easy to walk to everything you need. Well, if you were to live in a downtown
in a city like Berlin, it’s pretty likely that you’d be able to walk
to everything within about ten minutes. Where I live,
I can walk to numerous restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores,
bakeries, grocery stores, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, hair salons,
and so much more in ten minutes or less. Believe me, this proximity to everything
will make a huge difference in your life. If you want to go a little further
or get around a little faster, there are many more options
available, too. The first one is the electric scooter. This revolution in mobility has only been
in place in Germany since 2019. But man, if they ever had a huge impact. Ever since I moved here five years ago,
I’ve seen scooters everywhere. In fact, it quickly got out of hand
with scooters littering the sidewalks so much that it became hard to walk
without running into one. So a couple of years ago,
they limited the number of scooters. And that thankfully
really helped the problem. Now, I personally don’t ride scooters, but
I can see the appeal and I think they’re generally a good and useful addition
to the city’s transportation mix. Incidentally, another option
that’s available that I also haven’t used but seems to be popular is mopeds
or rollers, as the Germans call them. Since I don’t really use mopeds,
I’m not going to say too much about them. But if you’re interested in renting one,
a good company seems to be Emmy. In addition to Berlin, Emmy currently
also operates in Hamburg and Munich. Now, the next alternative to driving that’s widely used in Berlin
and throughout Germany is one of the greatest inventions
ever: the bicycle. According to recent data, about 18% of all
commutes in Berlin are done by bike. Just as a comparison,
the bike capital of the U.S., Davis, California,
only has a 14% share of bicyclists. And Berlin isn’t even really known
as a major biking city. Even though there are many cyclists here. The bike capital of Germany is Münster, which has nearly 40% of its residents
commuting by bike. Now, Germany is no Denmark or Netherlands
when it comes to cycling. But a recent study by Yahoo! Finance ranked Germany as the fifth
best country in the world for cycling. Not too shabby. Anyways, here in Berlin,
there are lots of options for cyclists. You can of course have your own bike, but you can also use bike share services
here like NextBike. I really like the NextBike
bikeshare system here in Berlin. I like to ride them in big parks
like the Tiergarten, and I generally think their bikes are comfortable,
sturdy and very well maintained. You could also use Swapfiets,
which is a bike subscription service from the Netherlands that lets
you use bikes on a monthly basis. Berlin and many other German cities
generally have pretty good biking infrastructure and options. So biking is an excellent
alternative to driving. Okay, let’s move on to the larger
public transportation networks. Starting with busses. When I lived in the US,
I never rode on busses. Unfortunately, in the US,
busses are not usually maintained so well and they aren’t
widely used as they are here. So when I moved to Germany,
I was reluctant to ride busses, but when I finally gave them a chance, I have to say
I was very pleasantly surprised. The busses here are modern, clean
and many of them are electric, so they aren’t noisy. I ride the bus frequently when I just want to get somewhere fast
without having to walk far. It’s also a great connection
between trains and subways and it goes places the trains don’t go. Berlin currently has just under
200 bus lines with more than 3200 stops. So I recommend you overcome
your anti-bus prejudices like I did
and give the busses in Germany a try. I think you’ll like them, too. In Berlin and across
Germany, subways are called the U-Bahn or untergrund Bahn,
which translates to underground train. The subways are a great
way to get around the city really quickly. In just a matter of minutes, you can be
in a completely different neighborhood and they’re mostly underground,
so you’re protected from the elements. The U-Bahn in Berlin has a very extensive network,
with nine lines and over 150km of tracks. And there are 175 urban stations in Berlin
with many unique and interesting designs. Here’s a taste of some of the wild station
designs here. Yeah, so I take the subway all the time and find it very convenient. My absolute
favorite way to travel in Berlin is by streetcar
or tram, as many people call it. I just love how you can sit
and watch the city go by. Right now, streetcars
are only in Northeast and East Berlin. I’m hoping they’ll be extended
to the rest of Berlin soon. Berlin’s streetcar network is
actually one of the oldest in the world. It’s also the third
largest streetcar system in the world. And it’s even bigger
than the subway system, with 22 lines covering
190km of track and almost 800 stops. I just think streetcars
are really fun to ride, and they’re so easy to hop on and off of. I’ve ridden on many streetcars in my time, and I think Berlin’s are some of the best. Streetcars are also very popular
throughout German cities. Right now, there are streetcars
running in about 60 German cities. So if you come here to live or just to
visit, I really recommend trying them out. The S-Bahn, which is short for Schnellbahn
or Rapid Train, is a light rail system that serves the region
in and around Berlin. This system, with 340km of track, 16 lines and 168 stations,
has been in operation for over 100 years. That’s why it is a great way
to get around the city, especially when you want to go longer
distances. In addition to the lines
that cut across the city, the S-Bahn also has a connection to the airport
and a circle line called the Ringbahn. This is the S-Bahn Ringbahn train
that goes around the downtown of Berlin. These are these are really nice new trains
that even have air conditioning. Whenever I want to travel farther across the city,
I take the S-Bahn. And like everything else on this list,
there are S-Bahn networks across Germany. There are currently 16 S-Bahn systems operating in major cities and regions
throughout Germany. As if that wasn’t enough transport
options for you, I’ve got two more. One of these is the regional train. And there are two types of regional trains
in Germany. The Regional Bahn or RB
and the Regional Express or RC. These trains connect cities and towns
throughout Germany. They stop in places
where the long distance trains, which we’ll talk about next, don’t stop. For example, when I recently took a day
trip to the beautiful Spreewad area just outside of Berlin,
I took a regional train. One thing
that’s really cool about these trains is that they often stop in the downtowns
of smaller German cities. This makes it really easy
to hop off the train and explore all kinds of interesting places
throughout the country. As you can see, Germany loves its trains. And if you’re interested in going
even farther distances
by train, you can take the I.C.E.. Intercity Express or ICE High Speed Train is my favorite way
to travel in Germany. I just love to sit comfortably
on these trains, reading a good book and watching the beautiful German
countryside go by. I really think this is the best way
to travel long distance. Much better than driving. Ever since I rode my first high
speed train as a child in France back in the 1980s,
I’ve been hooked. And I’m so happy that I now live
in a country that has a real network of high speed trains. There are currently about 400 high speed
trains operating on 11 lines in Germany. These trains connect
all of the major cities in Germany. ICE trains
also currently go to Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic,
the Netherlands, Belgium and France. And these trains are fast, operating at speeds up to 300km/h. This means you can easily
take a quick trip or a long weekend to visit neighboring countries
and enjoy all they have to offer, too. Now, if you live
in Germany, and you find that sometimes you absolutely NEED a car,
well there’s a solution for that, too. And that’s car share. Let’s say you want to haul
some heavy boxes of stuff across town, and they’re just too heavy to take any other way
than to put them into a car and drive. Lucky for you,
there are three main carshare services available to you in Berlin Sixt Share,
Miles, and Free2Move. Depending on the service you use, You
can rent by minute, by mile or by hour. These specific services
and others are also available throughout Germany. So, as you can see,
there’s really no reason whatsoever to own a car if you live
in the downtown of a German city. And one of the greatest benefits
of living car free in Germany
is that your costs will be much lower. Of course, there will still be some costs
for transport, but with the Deutschland ticket
you can ride busses, streetcars, subways and local and regional trains
to your heart’s content. Anyways, if you’re interested in learning
more about the advantages of living in Germany,
be sure to check out my other videos. Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll talk to you all again soon. Tschüß. Bis später.