- This is Jack from ToFluency.com,
and this is episode 12
of the To Fluency podcast.
It's fantastic to have you here
listening to this episode.
Now, today, you're going to learn
a lot of vocabulary
all about getting around cities.
Okay?
So, to get around a city means
to move from one place to the other,
and you can do this by walking,
taking a car, driving your car,
getting on a bus,
taking the train, walking.
I think I've said that already.
Going on your bike, et cetera.
So we're gonna talk about this, though,
in a really different way
because I'm going to compare
different countries.
Because I grew up in the UK,
I lived in Spain for a couple of years,
and then I've been in America for 10 years now.
So these three countries are very different
when it comes to getting around a city.
And I'm gonna talk about
what I dislike about the US.
It's very specific.
But it's quite interesting as well, I think.
But yeah, today, you're going to learn vocabulary
related to this and just get some good listening practice
because I'm going to talk about this
in a more conversational and informal way.
But before we go too deep into it,
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Okay.
So, let's start with the UK.
I grew up in a place called Preston, Lancashire,
which is quite close to Manchester.
Now, it's not a big city
but it is a big town or a small city.
I think the population is around 150,000
but then there are lots of small towns and villages
that are part of the greater area.
So it's quite a big place.
But growing up, I used to go around
and get around the city on my own quite a lot,
from quite an early age.
And one of the things that I really liked
which looking back now I realize
is that there were pavements everywhere.
In American English,
you use the term sidewalks.
But growing up there, there were sidewalks
and pavements everywhere
meaning that I could, more or less,
travel around safely.
And there were also a lot of zebra crossings.
In the US, they call them crosswalks
where you can safely, hopefully,
in most cases, cross the road
and cars will stop for you.
And one thing about the UK is
cars do stop for you
if you go across as a zebra crossing.
There is this time,
you have to wait for them to slow down
but once they slow down and stop,
then you can, in most cases,
safely cross the road.
So when I used to go to my friends' houses
I used to walk there quite a lot.
But then, when I got a little bit older,
I started to ride my bike.
So I got a bike and rode my bike
everywhere for a certain amount of time.
Now, when we used to go to the city center,
the town center, we used to take the bus.
And it was the number 32 bus I remember.
And it used to, or maybe it was 23,
sometimes I get confused with numbers that way.
It was either the 23 or 32.
I think it used to cost 32 p,
32 pence, to take the bus
to the town center.
My friend and I used to save up money
and yeah, take the bus, go to the center
of town and just buy things
that we didn't really need.
And then even when I got older,
we used to take the bus to the center of town
to go to pubs and clubs.
So taking the bus in the UK is quite common.
Now, when we used to travel
to different cities and towns,
we used to either drive,
take the bus, or most likely take the train.
Trains are good in the UK.
So to get to different places,
it's quite common to take the train.
And I just want to say at this point as well,
when you get to bigger cities like Manchester
and especially London,
there are many different options
for you to get around the city.
So generally speaking, there's the subway,
there's also, in Manchester, there's the tram,
which is quite common now.
Buses are very common too,
and people take taxis.
But getting around big cities
it's not common to take a car
or it's not as common to take the car.
Now, let's move on to Spain now
because I lived in two cities in Spain,
firstly in Bilbao,
and secondly in Valencia.
And those two cities are big.
So very big in terms of the biggest cities in Spain.
I think Valencia is number four,
maybe Bilbao's five,
maybe it's even number three.
I can't remember now.
But two big cities.
And in these cities we had endless options
when it came to getting around them.
So when I had, when I was teaching language lessons,
I used to either walk to places,
take the bus that wasn't as common,
take the underground, or take a train.
There was also a tram in both places.
And I think actually took the tram the most
because of where the language school was.
But if I could and if I had time,
I would walk.
Generally speaking, I remember taking the tram
on the way there and then walking home.
And it took me about 40 minutes, I think,
to walk home after teaching for the night.
I used to like doing that
because at night it was a bit cooler.
It wasn't as hot.
And I used to really just enjoy the walk.
So all in all, the UK and Spain
are very similar when it comes
to getting around cities.
I hadn't, I didn't really live
in a place or spend a lot of time
in a smaller town.
So maybe that was different.
And I imagine it's probably quite similar
to the UK where when you're living in a town
you still have really good public transport options
and you can walk around the town
or take the bike, take your bike.
Now, let's talk about the US
because the US is very different
compared to the UK and Spain.
Not so much in some of the big cities.
So let's take New York.
If you've ever been to New York before
you'll know everyone takes the subway.
People take buses, people walk,
people take the yellow cabs.
People take Ubers now.
There are plenty of cycle lanes as well.
So the US big cities like New York
great for public transportation.
Other big cities aren't, aren't like that.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Atlanta,
and what I remember from it
is that the public transportation isn't as good.
Everyone seems to just get in their car
and drive even on short distances.
And the traffic in Atlanta is terrible.
They have lanes that are,
well, they have roads that have nine lanes,
and they're completely full.
And I remember there wasn't a good subway option.
I can't remember about the buses
but I've spent some time in Atlanta bus station,
the main one, and it's a scary place.
So people don't tend to take the bus
as much in the US.
And I think this is true of the big cities, too.
I'd spent a bit of time in Houston,
and there was a metro that you could take,
an overground tram system.
Austin wasn't the best
for public transportation either.
And let's go now to smaller cities
where obviously they don't have subways
because they're not big enough to have the subways
or train systems.
And generally speaking as well, the train system
in the US isn't as developed as Europe.
I think being such a big country
means that it's not as common.
There are a lot of train systems in the Northeast
between cities like Philadelphia,
Washington DC, New York, Boston,
but in the South where I live
and I'm sure in the Midwest
and some of the West coast, too,
trains just aren't popular at all.
There aren't, there isn't a train station where I live.
So you can't go to the train station
and get a train somewhere.
There is a bus station,
but again, the thought of getting on a bus here,
people tend, don't tend to do it.
If you're going to travel to another city,
most people either drive there
or take a flight.
So flying between cities in the US
is more common than Europe
from my experience.
Now, the US is, a lot of towns
and cities and suburbs,
they've been built with the car in mind.
So there are a lot of people who live in suburbs.
These are outlying districts
of a city and residential in nature
where there are lots of detached houses
that aren't terraces or condos
or blocks of flats.
But they're standalone houses
with a yard, a driveway, lots of garages,
and people don't tend to park on the street.
They tend to park on their driveway or in the garage.
But one thing that I find is that
there aren't sidewalks,
or pavements in British English,
in the suburbs.
So where we live, we live in the suburbs,
out of the sea,
and there are no sidewalks anywhere,
which I just still find very confusing
and I don't really like it too much
because with children and just walking around in general
you have to walk on the road.
So wherever you go, you're walking on the road.
And this can be annoying
because obviously it's not as safe
and taking children or dogs out,
it makes it even less safe.
So this is something that I find
that is all over America
when you get into the suburbs especially.
When you're in big cities,
there are sidewalks and pavements
but not in residential areas.
And another example
of explaining how everything is about the car.
A lot of bars and restaurants
are in places where you can only get to by car.
So in a lot of towns and cities
you have everything in the city center
and then some community bars and restaurants.
But here, a lot of restaurants and bars
and places to go,
grocery stores and different shops,
they're in places that are called strip malls.
A strip mall.
And I can explain a strip mall here
but I think it's also a good idea,
if you can multitask,
to go to Google images
and just type in strip mall,
because it's gonna show you examples.
They're basically like a big building
or two or three large buildings
with different shops and restaurants
and whatever you want to have in there,
and a big parking lot.
And these are usually in places
where again, there are no sidewalks to get there.
There are no sidewalks to get there.
So you have to take the car
in order to get there.
And this is something that I find quite strange.
We do have some of this in the UK,
but usually these are reserved
for things like cinemas
or bowling alleys, things like that,
where you need a big building
outside the city center in order for it to work.
But here, it's very common in the US
to have these strip malls.
And again, you can't get there on foot.
You can't really get there on your bike.
It's usually too dangerous.
And if you want to get there on bus
by bus, sorry,
a little preposition mistake there,
then again, they drop you off
at the side of the road,
usually on the grass.
And then you have to cross the road
with no crosswalk to try and get there.
So for pedestrians it's very dangerous in the US
and it's just, you just can't walk places.
And this is something I miss so much.
That's something I miss about the UK
and Europe in general, and Spain,
is that when I was going to a restaurant
or a bar, I walked there.
When I was going to my language school
or language lesson, I'd walk there if I could.
I'd walk everywhere.
We'd walk to get groceries.
We didn't have a car in Spain.
We just walked everywhere or took public transport.
And then when you move to the US,
especially if you go to the suburbs,
then you just can't, you just can't walk places.
It's impossible.
It doesn't have the sidewalks
or pavements to walk there.
For me to walk to a bar or a restaurant
or a coffee shop or anywhere,
it would be quite dangerous.
And I've done it once before
when I took my car to the mechanics
and I had to walk home.
I wanted to walk home to try it out.
And it was pretty dangerous
because there's not a lot of room
on the side of the road for you to walk
and you're walking on grass
or walking on someone's property
or the side of their property.
And again, it's just not as fun.
So that is what I would love to see change
in the US is something or cities and towns
that would really focus
on the pedestrian instead of the driver.
And I don't know if that is going to change or not.
It might change depending on different factors
or what people want to invest in.
And there is talk about investing
in more train stations and train lines
so that people can move around the city
or move from city to city on the train.
But again, the car rules here.
Everyone needs a car if they want to get around town,
and the whole city and cities
have been structured in a way
that benefits the car.
Things like no sidewalks,
no really good bus stops,
and lots of things that you can only get to
by car such as bars, restaurants,
and shops in strip malls.
Okay, so what I'll do is I'll leave
some of the key phrases from this podcast
in the description
so that you can just look that over.
And then I also just recommend looking at Google images
for things like strip malls and anything else
that you want to just have a good image in your head.
And then if you, again,
if you've enjoyed this podcast episode
then please leave me a review.
It would really benefit me
and help me reach more people
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All right, thank you so much for listening.
Bye for now.