Conversation with a bus driver and a norweign family.
Different Perspective: Urban Movement Crisis or Say Opportunity Creation
Journey: Haukland to Lekness to Svolvear
Few different occasions there is one thing keep coming across my travel across the norway. So after the night at Haukland, I wake up and packed my stuff fast to get the 3pm(guess) bus to Leknes* Town. I waited for like 15–30 Minutes there is no bus. One I could have missed the bus or the place where am standing be wrong. So I missed the bus, kept walking across the road and start waving my hand to hitchhike. But nobody seems to be ready for today :) so I continued up the road taking all this pics.
(Pictures of that road pictures)
Then I reached the place which is the Cow Farming place I guess. It’s nice the greenery and the view from there looking at the see. I took this pic and see the bus on the other side. I put all my stuff in a bag and ready for the ride. And I confirmed it’s not the school bus when I look at the name board.
The driver opened the door and asked me where am going. I told him the details and he replied the bus is not going there but he could drop me in between where I can get the bus. He asked me to check my shoes whether I have the cow shit. There was a bit in the corner, so I cleaned by scratching on the grass field and then got it in. Am not sure whether he is trying to make sure his bus is clean (personally) or it sort of any other reasons, it is a very good thing. Because if the driver could make sure the bus is clean by using this sort of precaution, nobody is going to complain and every one would have the smooth ride. And sorry it’s my mistake as well not to check the road status properly and kept on walking like the other part of the road.
I got in and he told me I don’t need to pay 😇 ( guess saved like 70Kroner(USD8). I was the only one in the bus and curiously asked him whether the government would plan to cut down this bus service if it goes like this.
“No. Whether there is people or not, we need to run the bus. The government pay us and we need to continue running this. Also if this bus services are not used by public but we need to still use fo schools. So we will continue to run the services”
Meaning the bus runs for different services on the different part of the day which is good business. Secondly it’s about the transport services across norway whether it is remote village or city. You would experience the same level of transport services which is astonishing. When meeting with another norweign family at a restaurant, he shared something similar which his Canadian friend shared. The Canadian was very surprised to even in remote part of the Norway there is 4G internet speed. He shares the government of Norway has planned the digitalization of services before 20years than many countries. It’s very impressive because even though India is sort of the main Human resource player in the IT sector but the amount of digitization on the government or other services is still slow in my opinion.
This sort of infrastructure really matters in organization or companies. How I see this is
A mass-based common tourist decides to go to a place based on public transportation or even an accessible route to that destination. If that route is not available not many people would go there which means it stops a place to becoming a tourist destination or even buying a home or opening a business where there is no route to access.
In the initial time, the government would face a situation of having no people in the bus. It’s a supply and demand problem. Until a lot of people familiar about this route, this is going to be a loss for the government. In long term, it’s a good idea yeah?
Also in recent years the population moving to urban areas are increasing.
According to UN https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/cpd51-sustainable-cities.html
“More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas today, and that share is expected to increase further. By 2030, six of every 10 people will be an urban inhabitant. By 2050, it may be two out of three. Urbanization promotes development through economies of agglomeration and specialization, efficient service delivery and greater productivity of labor.”
UN shares its good to have this movement if only if the cities are properly managed. Some of the problems I do sometimes see is the housing crisis in different cities around the world where most people wanted to live in the city and it becomes crowded. The higher density per city leads to a lot of issues like traffic, housing prices, solution, wastage, etc. All this are solvable if properly managed. But these issues are created by us and we are trying to solve.
But what the man Norweign family in Lekness bus stop shared is proving the infrastructure and accessibility of everything people need, people don’t really need to move. He feels Sweden is facing a housing crisis as everybody moving to cities and in not many people in rural areas. I do believe in the way Norway strategized of having proper infrastructure everywhere.
Even in this Lekness where there are 6K people only living(if am not mistaken), they have a proper library
{Library pics}
So all over the people in Lofaten island come here for any library matters. If there is no book they wanted, the library would request the books from other libraries of Norway. Usually, the people wait no more than a week which is GOOD. And they can return the book anywhere. Imagine getting a book in Lofoten, read while you on a train, return in Olso :)
I said a bye to the family and got into my bus
{bus on the night pics}
There I met a guy on the bus who works on shipping and oil company where he shared that he just drinks and enjoyed the cultural festival. He was the very initiative guy who first started with a hello and asking where I am from. The cultural festivals happen across the country it seems frequently where they do the local cultural activities belong to Norweign Culture.
It was a long 3days around that Lekness area before leaving to Svolvear to take a ship to Honningsvag.
Norway(8) :
