Freiburg part 1

As I mentioned earlier, I took the over night train from Krumlov to Freiburg. I chose Frieburg because several people at the conference recommended it for its progressive environmental policies including good bicycle facilities. What I didn’t know what that Bertrand has been giving tours of the sustainable development there as part of his work. I arrived at 9 AM and took a tour of the city center. I was very nice, but did not vary significantly from the many other nice European cities I have seen over the past few weeks. The only unusual feature is the little streams (about 1 foot wide and a shallow rectangle) that run along the pedestrian pathways presumably for drainage. (You’ll see the pictures if I can ever get to a computer fast enough to upload them.) I stopped for a coffee (on my way to meet Bertrand in front of the train station at noon). While I tried to hide it, it quickly became clear at I am from the US. The man behind the counter didn’t speak English but one of the other customers did. “An American in Freiburg? Are you a student? Why would you come to Freiburg?” I didn’t bother to explain to him just shrugged.

Bertrand and I met at the station without a hitch. Nearby, there is a large bicycle parking structure (several stories) that also includes carsharing, bike-sharing, café and bike shop. There is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge overpass of good quality leading to the garage. Another overpass (over the major train lines) carries many tramlines serving the city. It’s pretty much everything you would need for a multimodal transportation hub.

I had left my bags in a very sophisticated left luggage apparatus, completely automated, where you pay, insert your luggage into the case, and get a ticket when the machine takes it away. Then, you use your same ticket to tell the machine to bring your particular bags back to you. Bertrand pointed out that he had seen similar systems for efficient storage of cars. More on this later (Tubingen).

We had a small adventure trying to find this center for solar research where Bertrand had to drop something off. (It reminded me of a similar adventure with Matt in Bangkok some of my readers may recall.) The office had relocated to a Solar Information Center on the outskirts of town (but Bertrand assured me that they have excellent public transportation despite the existence of parking). Getting into the building was one challenge and the finding the right office was another. After many twists and turns, we did in fact reach the intended individuals, but only after enlisting a lady with a nearby organization and gleaning all she knew about solar energy and her neighboring company (all in German, of course). So, that was fun.

By then we were hungry, and it was getting to the end of mealtime. We drove over to Vauban, the sustainable neighborhood he wanted to show me. There is a little hippy café (Susi) there where they were serving lunch very much like we had at the conference, played loud American music, and the walls were painted with murals (it is Germany afterall). It was noodles and rice and vegetarian curry. For desert we had “banana milk” with little flakes of chocolate unlike anything either of us had ever tried before.

First we looked at a group of new houses. An architect who specializes in buildings with low energy needs designed them. They are long rows of town houses, windows mostly to the south to absorb as much sunlight in winter as they can. Their rooves are covered with solar panels, and Bertrand says they actually produce more energy than they use. Each unit is painted a different bright color and about half are occupied (they are very expensive). So, the remainder of the area is being developed with cheaper, more traditional building structures, unfortunately. Along the main road dividing the neighborhood, they are in the process of developing a large building (the full length of the road through the neighborhood) that will house ground-floor retail, and I think parking above or maybe offices.

On the other side of the main road is a series of old military barracks. Originally, the city had some idea of what to do with them. As I understand it, people were already squatting in them, and told the city, no, this is going to be a sustainable community-planned neighborhood. The city cooperated, and the buildings were converted to co-ops. The residents got to decide what kinds of facilities to invest in (like wheelchair accessibility, an actual example) and how the common space would be designed. In general, they seem to have a lot of playgrounds for children. Throughout Europe, I see a lot of vegetable gardens. (I think American’s have some subconscious idea that if you grow your vegetables it means you can’t afford to buy them.)

[Continued in the next blog bc this internet connection is too slow the post the whole thing at once.]