BME (20)

20. Tétel - Transport - Közlekedés

• everyday transport
• public transport in the city
• intercity transport
• individual transport (cars, motorbikes, bicycles)
• public transport problems
• individual transport problems

There are several ways of travelling. People can travel by bicycle, motorcycle, car, taxi, bus,
tram, trolleybus, underground, train, plane, ship, boat, hydroplane and so on. 

There are many ways of getting about town. In most big cities people have a wide choice of
tram, bus, trolley-bus and underground routes in addition to a taxi service. Trams,
trolleybuses, and buses stop to pick up passengers at special stops. During the morning rush
hours, with so many people hurrying to work, the vehicles are usually overcrowded. During
the evening rush hours, with everyone hurrying home, they are packed full, too. 

You can buy railway tickets (menetjegy) at newsagent’s, ticket offices, in shops, from ticket
machines and in some towns from the drivers, which is always more expensive. Then you
have to validate your ticket either punching (jegyet lyukaszt) it or stamping it. But if you have
a monthly ticket, you don’t have to worry about buying a ticket because monthly and weekly
tickets are valid for several journeys within a particular period of time. They are also cheaper
than separate tickets. You can also buy half-yearly and yearly tickets.

I used to go to work by bus, underground and tram but nowadays we go to work by car with
my husband and our daughter. It’s
more comfortable and quicker than
the public transport.

I don’t like public vehicles because

they are slow and crowded, and the
service is not frequent enough. I
know that it would be more
environment-friendly to use them,
but the transport is not developed
enough here. For instance, most of my friends switched to bikes because they can cycle fast
and arrive at work easily.

The fastest type is the underground because it isn’t influenced by weather or traffic
conditions. In Hungary you can find it only in the capital.

People travel by taxi when they are in a hurry, when they have much to carry or when they are
in unknown places. You go by taxi if there is no public transport or it isn’t operating because
it’s too late.
The London underground (the Tube) is one of the largest in the world. It has 10 lines and
nearly 300 stations. Underground called subway in New York and metro in Paris and many
other cities. 

Public transport can be made more environmentally friendly by replacing buses with trams
and trolleybuses or running them on natural gas.

Parking is getting more and more difficult nowadays because the number of cars has
increased dramatically. More and more
people are using cars, despite the fact that
on-street parking is quite expensive.

In Hungary the point-to-point (helyközi)

transport is very critical. Buses and trains
are crowded, slow, expensive and often
late. In addition, we should not forget the
shuttle service where some buses are
cancelled and you have to wait an hour to
get on the next one. Not to mention the fact that some ticket inspectors are utterly rude.