this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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They probably assumed this is like a theme park or something and not an actual city that people actually live in year round. Cities having nice, people friendly places away from cars? Who’s ever heard of that?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I dont think OP realizes how disgustingly car-centric German culture is. They probably do, in fact, have parking garages

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Am German, can confirm. Parking garages do indeed exist here. Germany is very car centric, but fortunately not as bad as the US. Our cities do also have mostly working public infrastructure that makes it possible for lots of people to get to the Christmas market and drink several mugs of mulled wine without the need for overly huge parking garages.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Last time I drank a bunch of mulled wine in Germany during Christmas, I went to the train station and found it was closed.

Its absurd that the trains dont run all night, especially on holidays where everyone is out drinking and trying to not drive or bike intoxicated

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I agree, there's definitely room for improvement.

It seems rare, that the whole train station was closed (probably not one of the bigger cities) and you must have stayed rather late, while christmas markets usually already open in the afternoon (or even earlier) and the sun sets early in their season, so there's plenty of time to enjoy them while they are most beautiful (at night) and still make it home by train in a lot of places.

That being said, in more places than you'd expect, you won't find convenient train connections after midnight, if at all. That makes using public transit almost useless for partying. I remember living in a somewhat rural area as a young partygoer and if I wanted to go to the city for partying, the choice was to either go home before the city folk even really started going, or keep partying until the clubs closed and then hang around with the punks at the railroad station to wait for the first train in the morning. Having a designated driver and going by car was the usual option.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It's more fun that way

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

these people have not walked anywhere in their life have they?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

our racist grandparents fled the cities and abolished sidewalks

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Underground parking garages are very common over here. Most of the times these city squares are exactly that, a huge multi-level underground parking garage because these squares are always event spaces, and they are usually city-center so even when there isnt events, people have somewhere to park when just visiting the city. Yes, there will even be long lines of traffic waiting/hoping for a spot during event periods.

With that said, they do fill up, usually fast. So most events suggest finding public transportation. This just means people park further away and then take the bus/rail/etc the rest of the way. These Markets arent just for the locals, people travel from all over to come to them. So public transportation for long-distant travel, while totally possible, isnt always as practical (sometimes nor affordable or possible) for everyone. Plus, long distance trains do sell out. We just spent most of the season traveling all over Central Europe going to various markets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I remember in Germany they would have a "Festbuß", festival bus, which were additional public transit routes from surrounding villages to wherever the event is happening. They are usually advertised in advance to give people additional option.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Yup, still a thing! Especially if a lot of surrounding villages are doing things, like christmas markets. Or even within a village with lots of small stops, like a bar-hopping type deal. The buses just loop, sometimes in both directions, through all the stops. They are separate from the normal transit buses, you gotta buy their specific ticket (or it’s free) and they are usually travel bus types rather than city transit buses. The inner-village ones are just passenger vans, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

This is /c/fuckcars not r/americabad.

Chicago has three Christkindlmarkets that look just like the above, all accessible by public transit. It's okay to celebrate what we're doing right.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

What terminal car brain does to a mf

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Meanwhile, in China:

"Why can't we have it both ways?"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Americans when a city is made for people and not vehicles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There also are a lot of tourists coming to the Christmas markets, sometimes from quite far away.

Those people either completely take public transit (they'll be drinking anyways, so public transit is easier to get back home) or go for the park + ride offers that pop up during that time. It works pretty well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's a Christmas market about half that size in Denver. I've never been puzzled about how people get there.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

No one is puzzled. This was a case of someone casually scrolling and commenting without critical thought. Which, let's be honest, we are all guilty of that and the other guy taking the opportunity to dunk with an AmEriCa Am I rIgHt???

[–] [email protected] -2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that I have to live next to those people for the other 11 months

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Living in large groups is literally one of the defining traits of our species though.