One of the biggest culture shocks that I experienced was the urban planning of the city, but specifically its planning with public transportation. The city was designed to be walkable, and we could reach almost anywhere within 15-20 minutes. For longer rides, there were more options. The city is full of public-use bikes, which you can rent out and take to another station. I spotted these everywhere, and the number of people who owned bikes or smaller two-wheeled vehicles is a lot. They also have an amazing metro system that can take you from the heart of the city to the end of the urban sprawl. The city made it very easy to use as well. You just have to put money on a card and a kiosk in the station, and you can take trips in Rand over again. It only costs fifty cents most of the time! The hanging bridge was also a very unique approach to a difficult problem, and the fact that it is still in high use today shows the thought that went behind the project. Another surprise to me was the pedestrian roads. Some streets are reserved for only pedestrians or only local/emergency vehicles. This approach further strengthens the walkability of the city. The urban planning needed to make these narrower streets too allows for more buildings and fewer roads.

Transportation in the US is completely different. Almost every citizen owns a car, and even in cities where there is public transportation like Pittsburgh, a lot of people still choose to drive around instead of taking advantage of the system. Ubering is big, and not many people use bikes even though Pitt had the Pogo stations set up. The T in Pittsburgh is also heavily underutilized. It only is really crowded or in big use when there is a football game going on, and even then, people use it to get to their parked cars. The amount of parking lots and garages in the US is absurd compared to here. It feels like you can park almost anywhere in the city, but I have not spotted a single huge parking lot here yet. I feel like Spain prioritizes sustainability and the health of its citizens a lot more than the US. Providing cheap, safe public transportation as well as making cities walkable allows its citizens to be more connected and improves the health of both them and the environment. The US is too focused on independence and not changing from its roots. We need to adapt like the rest of the first-world countries today and follow in their footsteps if we want to progress as a society.