A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

If I showed this picture to friends and family in a slideshow presentation of pictures from my time in Australia, I would probably get asked to skip over it quickly to make room for more wallabies and horizon sunsets. However, despite the fact that it looks like a random picture taken on James Cook Drive down the center of campus, it can show a great deal about the culture here. When I first arrived in Australia two months ago, I would get frustrated when I needed to travel places because I am so used to having a car. I was used to simply walking out to the parking lot, putting the key in the ignition, turning until the putter of my Honda started up and driving where ever I wanted or needed to go. However, a lot of people here do not have cars, and even in a rural town such as Townsville, there is an excellent public transportation system. People use the buses to get to and from work every day, they know the bus schedules by heart, and most of all - you can travel by bus to get nearly anywhere in the city.

If you take a closer look at the picture, behind the bus there is a bike rack filled with bikes. Not only is the public transportation system widely used, but bike transportation is a very popular form of transportation as well. There is a very successful bike share program on campus which supplies hundreds of bikes to the students at James Cook University to use. In comparison, about three years ago, Allegheny College started a bike share program for students. Needless to say, it does not exist anymore because there weren't enough people interested. At James Cook, if you don't join the bike share program within the first week of school, the program runs out of bikes to give out.

Overall, this is a picture of a moving society and a culture that utilizes services provided. Everyone uses the bus system and most people have bikes to get around. There really is not a need for a car if you are familiar with the public transportation schedule.