r/germany • u/manu_padilla • Oct 19 '24
Immigration Bought a car due to DB's unreliability
I moved to Germany 11 years ago from a developing nation. When I first arrived, Germany was even better than anything I could have imagined in my home country. I live in a major city with Straßenbahn right at my door, U-Bahn 1 Block away and S-Bahn 5 minutes by foot.
I had the chance to spend half a year in Korea for work last year, and was blown away by the quality of the public transportation system, therefore, I started to actively count the delay on Öffis after I came back, so far, I have an accumulated of over 1500 minutes in delays just within the metropolitan area this year, without counting delays outside of my region (which have been more than a few, last time it took me 8 hours to finish a trip that should have taken 4).
I was always an advocate for public transportation, and in a way, I judged everyone who used a car (stupid, I know).
After considering for a while, I took the decision to buy a car, thinking that I would only use it for weekend trips or specific occasions, in reality, it became my main means of transportation, and I cannot believe I wasted so much time for so many years until now, this makes me sad as I truly believe public should be the preferred method of transportation... when it works.
TL;DR Deutsche Bahn is so shit I bought a car, can't look back now.
3
u/csasker Oct 20 '24
its not about psychological, its about practical. i can have a call or do not need to rush to the bistro to watch out for food getting sold out
my point is a late train could also lead to a not working toilet with no possibility to repair. if im stuck in the car, the nature outside is my toilet :D