Transportation and The Rhine in Koblenz
Last weekend, a group of my friends, some old and others new, ventured to the historic city of Koblenz. On this trip, we observed infrastructure of all sorts and the absence of some necessary infrastructure. There was transportation infrastructure, waste management infrastructure, social infrastructure, and a lack of water management infrastructure. We traveled to Koblenz via a regional train, which left from Bonn central station and arrived at the central station in Koblenz.
This train was convenient. We simply needed to find out when the train was scheduled to leave and get on it, no prepaying was required except for the Bonn transit pass which we already had. In the United States, to get a train like this, we would have to purchase tickets for this particular journey, get to the train station an hour in advance in case of delays or changes in rails, and then go to an assigned seat. German trains are more reliable and convenient than American trains, allowing the German people to count on them as a dependable means of travel. Our experience exemplifies the difference in the quality of the two countries’ transportation systems. Due to this difference, more people in the United States travel by car, while many more Germans use the available transportation infrastructure. While driving a car is technically still transportation infrastructure on the roads, it is much more convenient and cheaper to use public transportation when the infrastructure is convenient, efficient, and reliable. In Koblenz, like in Bonn, there are plenty of buses and trams to get around the city and to the train stations on time. While using the sidewalk infrastructure in Koblenz, which was noticeably cleaner than any sidewalk in the United States, we observed many instances of social infrastructure. We saw many churches, shops, and other stores. The social infrastructure also attracts tourists worldwide, using the transportation systems surrounding Koblenz to travel to Koblenz.
While in Koblenz, my group visited several attractions, such as castles, museums, and monuments. When we arrived at these various locations, we used many stairs to climb up the mountains that the castles rest upon and a path along the Rhine River to reach the mountains and attractions. The Rhine River was overflowing with water, as we were in the wet season in Germany.
This means that rain is abundant and therefore the water level of The Rhine rises depending on the season. On the path that day, The Rhine caused flooding and substantial amounts of water flowed onto the sidewalk. We wondered why there were no wastewater management or drainage systems since cement can break down very easily when exposed to water. With this, we observed that much of the path was made of stone, which can still be eroded by water but not nearly as quickly as cement. Despite not seeing any obvious flood management systems, the countries through which The Rhine flows organize regular meetings to manage the waters of The Rhine. These meetings have convened regularly for the past 70+ years and continue to occur in efforts to cooperatively oversee the water management of The Rhine. (New Rhine Atlas and International Flood Risk Management Plan Rhine Published, 2020) Even though we did not see any wastewater systems to manage The Rhine, we did see waste management infrastructure on The Rhine itself in the form of a barge. We saw several boats on the water, many transporting large mounds of waste from the city, which were managed well and had no distinctive odor wafting through the air, unlike the United States.
In the evening, we departed the city having observed many instances of exceptional infrastructure in and around Koblenz, many of which were noticeably more efficient and cleaner than in the United States. On the train, I sat and wondered about America and its need to step up its game regarding infrastructure in general. As we learned in one of our readings, to get the United States infrastructure to an acceptable standard, we would need to invest 2.2 trillion dollars into our infrastructure in 2009. In 2009, we only allocated one trillion dollars to our infrastructure. This caused the United States’ infrastructure level to decline further as the years progressed. We would now need 2.6 trillion dollars just to bring the United States’s infrastructure to an acceptable level. In the meantime, the US has relatively recently had a bridge collapse in Maryland, water supply contamination issues in Michigan, and uncontrolled flooding in California as our systems break down. (Policy Statement 299 – Infrastructure Investment, n.d.) Hopefully, as a country, we can put more money into our infrastructure and get this problem under control before more disasters result from the inattention to this critical need.
Works Cited:
New Rhine Atlas and International Flood Risk Management Plan Rhine published. (2020, December 21). https://www.iksr.org/en/press/press-releases/press-releases-individual-presentation/new-rhine-atlas-and-international-flood-risk-management-plan-rhine-published
Policy Statement 299 – Infrastructure investment. (n.d.). ASCE. https://www.asce.org/advocacy/policy-statements/ps299—infrastructure-investment#:~:text=The%20ASCE%202021%20Report%20Card,infrastructure%20to%20an%20acceptable%20condition.
