Outside of my Spanish coursework this month I interacted frequently with the public transportation system in Málaga, as well as in other cities in Spain. Throughout the city of Málaga, there are public bus routes that cover the entire city. Despite being a city filled with tiny streets and lots of historic buildings, the public bus system, Súbete, works incredibly well. Personally, I chose to get a bus card that had unlimited rides for a month, which was only around 20 euros. This made it super easy to take the bus to school in the morning, and to the beach afterwards, or even to friends’ apartments in a different neighborhood of the city.
One thing that fascinated me the most was how many people used public transportation. In the cities that I have lived in, including Pittsburgh, the community that uses the buses typically consists of students or people who might not own a car, which is not the majority of people. However, in Malaga, Madrid, and Sevilla, almost everyone uses public buses to get to wherever they need, if even needed, as grocery stores, the beach, the frutería are all within walking distance in your neighborhood. This is very different from Pittsburgh, where not every neighborhood has close access to a reliable grocery store, for example in Oakland.
Additionally, you will find every age and type of person on the public buses, as most people do not drive in Málaga, and many cities in Spain. It is a lot more expensive to maintain a car in Spain and Europe than in the US. Due to the amount of people that use public transportation, I think this has made the systems more reliable and efficient. Everyone is counting on the public transportation to get to work, to school, to enjoy the city. It is very evident that public transportation and getting people where they need to be is a priority of Malaga and in Spain in general. I noticed how this ties into the cultural differences between Malaga and the US.
The lack of fast paced hustle culture makes using public transportation more common and accepted. Not every bus comes right on time, there might be a slight mishap but it is not the end of the world if that happens. This attitude shift is very apparent in every aspect of the culture in Malaga, especially with public transportation. In the US it is apparent that everyone wants to own their own car to be able to get to places, and travel on their own time.
The more relaxed lifestyle doesn’t mean that everyone lays on the beach all day, but the slower pace allows for everyone to take each day as its own. There is less hustle and bustle. It is evident that the priorities in Spain are not about work and climbing to the next achievement. Rather, people are striving to create a happy and enjoyable lifestyle that they can maintain for many years. The public transportation system is one piece of Spanish culture that demonstrates the slower pace of life.
See you on the next bus! Adios!
