MOBILITY BAVARIAN STYLE

A VISIT TO THE OKTOBERFEST IN MUNICH? WE DIDN’T HAVE TO ASK OUR AUTHOR PHILIPP MAUSSHARDT A SECOND TIME. HE WILLINGLY TRAVELED TO THE BAVARIAN CAPITAL TO TEST AN ELECTRIC CAR AND A SEGWAY TRANSPORTER FOR US.

A man wearing lederhosen runs from the sidewalk onto the street without first looking around. For God’s sake! Doesn’t he have eyes in his head! I abruptly step on the brakes, but the jaywalker doesn’t even notice that. He obviously has only one thing in mind: the fastest way to the Oktoberfest.

But then I think to myself: Gosh, he probably didn’t hear me coming, because I’m gliding almost noiselessly down Munich’s Lindwurmstrasse. The Peugeot iOn I’m steering through the Bavarian capital is a fully electrically powered vehicle with no CO₂ emissions whatsoever.

I can even hear the birds singing. The usual annoying motor sounds do not attack my ears. The soft whirr of the tires on the asphalt and the rush of the house facades as I ride by are the only indications that I’m actually driving. The future is quiet and comfortable: Although the Peugeot is a mere three-and-a-half meters, it is a cozy four-seater with just about all the equipment one might expect from a state-of-the-art vehicle.

PUTTING THE PEDAL TO THE METAL
At Stachus, a large square in central Munich, a silver Mazda MX5 pulls up alongside me. When the traffic light turns green, however, all eyes are on me. “Electromobility is becoming a reality” is printed on the rear door of my car, which has absolutely no trouble keeping pace with the sports car as we start to accelerate.

I drive over the Isar River to Munich’s Au district, where the great comedian Karl Valentin was born. He certainly would have been delighted with a car that neither stinks nor makes noise. With the gift of audacious foresight, Karl Valentin, as early as the 1930s, had a hopeful vision of Munich as an accident-free city in which the central public square, Marienplatz, would only be free for bicycles on Mondays, for pedestrians on Tuesdays and for vehicles on Wednesdays.

MUNICH AT THE FOREFORNT OF E-MOBILITY
For quite some time now Munich has played a pioneering role when it comes to electromobility. Here, research is carried out and implemented. Currently, the city, together with several Fraunhofer institutes and the companies Siemens and BMW, is testing the cable-free charging of an e-vehicle via induction coils. eCarTec, also in Munich, has established itself as the leading trade fair in Germany, and at the Technical University Munich (TUM), a team of professors and students has recently developed the “Mute,” a particularly light electric vehicle that was greeted with great enthusiasm by experts at the International Auto Show (IAA).

In the meantime, my Peugeot iOn purrs along in the direction of the central train station, where the E-Mobility shop of m+p consulting, a subsidiary of Bilfinger Berger, is located. It’s not the charge indicator that forces me to drive back there; after all, the battery still has almost 100 kilometers worth of electricity. Fact is, this afternoon I want to test yet another vehicle: the Segway. Although the human transporter gives users the feeling of being on foot, people using them are considered “operators of an electrically powered mobility aid,” by traffic authorities.

MAKING WAVES WITH THE SEGWAY
A technical assistant provides me with a short introduction. Weight forward: acceleration. Weight back: braking. I take two spins around the block and with every meter the fun factor increases. It’s October, the sun warms my legs and all of Munich is in Oktoberfest fever. Riding along on my Segway, I take my place among the throngs of lederhosen and dirndls heading in the direction of the Theresienhöhe, the location of the biggest folk festival in the world. I maneuver my vehicle like a fish in water. A group of Japanese tourists take my picture. When they return home they will probably describe the combination of tradition and innovation—lederhosen and Segway.

The mild fall weather entices me to take a detour through the English Garden, where a jumble of pedestrians, cyclists, joggers and inline skaters find their way across a broad network of park paths. I also have no trouble navigating my Segway transporter over the fine gravel, and when a jogger approaching the famous Chinese Tower turns out to be an old acquaintance of mine, we stop and chat for a while. She’s a bit more out of breath than I am. I lean slightly forward and my mobile transporter accelerates to around 20 kilometers per hour. I wave goodbye and turn in the direction of the canal. In the cold waters of the Isar, a group of hearty souls on surfboards brave the rushing downstream currents.

Behind me, a voice suddenly warns me to get out of the way—a group of tourists on the transporters is passing through. In Munich several city tour organizers have discovered the Segway as the ideal means of seeing the sights. Wherever mobile tourists appear, they become the center of attention. “Is it difficult to drive?” a man in a plaid shirt and lederhosen asks, as I make a stop at a beer garden. The man, a member of a bowling club from Cologne, is dressed like a Bavarian in honor of the Oktoberfest and is checking out my transporter with curiosity. “Nah,” I casually answer, enjoying my role as a Segway expert.

NO ACCESS TO THE FESTIVAL GROUNDS
The increasing number of dirndls signals the proximity of the Oktoberfest. And a police road block brings my mobile journey to an end. A friendly but firm police officer explains that a total ban on vehicles starts here—and the Segway is, after all, a vehicle. Is it ever, I think a bit later in one of the beer tents as I drink my first liter. In my mind’s eye I see people noiselessly zipping through pleasant cities without emissions, happily waving to one another. And when the third liter of beer arrives in front of me, I have the distinct impression that the waitress has brought it to me on her Segway.

Text: Philipp Mausshardt, Photos: Antonia Zennaro
Bilfinger Berger Magazine 1/2012