Motormouth: Life without a car has turned me into a vegetarian

Relying on “BMW” (bus, MRT, walking) to get around has changed my life for the better. 

[Story by guest columnist Ms C.H Cai]

Enough complaints about Singapore’s public transport already. It’s about time that I give it some credit and tell everyone how the lack of personal transport or a BMW-driving partner has helped to improve my well-being. 

Much as I think taking the train during peak hours is such a curse, I admit that it’s precisely this predicament that has given me a major revelation and turned me into a proud vegetarian.

Yes, I had a life-changing, mind-altering, light-bulb moment while getting myself squashed in the jam-packed MRT one day. 

As always on my commute to/from work, I needed to wrestle my way into the cabin where I would get elbowed and bruised as I squeezed myself into the rush-hour train.

So there I was, anxiously trying to find a footing in the crowded cabin so I wouldn’t elbow and bruise other people, when I felt terribly breathless, but not from claustrophobia. I got overwhelmed by a continuous whiff of intense body odour reminiscent of raw stinky onions. 

Then, all of a sudden, in the midst of being squashed by other hot sweaty bodies, complemented by strong BO, I thought of the poor chickens packed in tiny cages at the chicken farms. 

Now don’t we all feel like the poor fowl? Only that our poultry counterparts have it much worse, because we public transport users at least have air-con around our heads and no bio-waste at our feet. 

My heart suddenly sank. I’m only on the train for about half an hour and I’m already feeling faint and ready to tear off my own hair. Imagine a whole life stuck in a sordid little quarter without the freedom to move more than five steps, surrounded by bird shit and suffering stress from the horribly-cramped environment. 

So there you go - the solved mystery of how having no car made me a vegetarian. I think that if I had the luxury of driving my own car or being ferried around in my partner’s vehicle, this revelation wouldn’t have happened at all. I’ve stayed meat-free since then.

I’m glad to say, thanks to “BMW” (bus, MRT, walking) and not having my own car, I have become a proud vegetarian. 

"BMW" is less comfortable than any BMW car, but more vegan-friendly in a way.

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