Cross Border Inventions

I consider myself quite well traveled, having spent much of my last 5 years traveling for work throughout the US, Europe and a bit in Asia. So one of the things I was most surprised about when moving to Germany was that there are many different inventions (typically technology related) and practices that are not duplicated in the US (and vice versa, though I will focus on those in Germany and not in the US). As connected as our world is these days, I would have expected that anything that makes life more efficient or could earn a buck for someone would be quickly brought to the US. But that's not the case. Nothing huge, but little things (in no particular order).

1. Germans love to drive fast and obviously invest money in technology that assists in the safety of this, as well as the efficiency of it. Above many of the bridges near cities with rush hour are LED displays of the current speed limit over each lane. The speed limit changes depending on the number of cars that are sensed to be going under the bridge in a certain period of time. For example, when there is little traffic, the speed limit shows unlimited. When more traffic, it shows about 60 and goes all the way down to 20 if it senses that cars moving slowly or stopped for an accident. And this appears to trigger previous bridges as well so one always knows what is going on ahead. The changing of the speed limit is quite dynamic, as I see it change all the time as I approach.

2. The parking garages in the cities keep track of how many spaces are available and on what floors. Additionally, these numbers are reported centrally so that when entering the larger cities, there is a sign that shows how many spaces are available in each of the city parking garages. Again this is done electronically. And as one goes up (or down as the case may be) in the garage, each floor has a light system to alert you whether there are spaces available on your floor or not (green means available, red means go to the next floor). This saves quite alot of time when searching for parking spots.

3. Not technological exactly, but there is a great system of bike rentals in Frankfurt and other German cities. A company owns many bikes and they are left locked up at various locations (street corners) around the city. If you wish to rent a bike (about $1 an hour), you text message or call a number and they bill your cell phone and unlock the bike remotely. When you are done, you park the bike, lock it and let them know where you left it, though I believe they do have GPS sensors built in. While not exactly a phenomenal idea in the US as we don't ride bikes as much and I can't even imagine riding a bike in NYC, I just like the ease and efficiency that this is done.

4. In several places, especially my office, I like the way that the vending areas (vending machines as well as the cafeteria) are non-cash. You load up your ID card with cash at ATM like machines at specific intervals (5-100 euros) and just swipe it when you want something. This makes the lines move extremely fast at peak times (lunch) and there is absolutely no concern regarding employee theft or giving the wrong change. Not to mention, I bet the average spending per person goes up with the implementation of such a system as the human mind doesn't necessarily think about the cash they are spending from a card in the same manner they do with actual cash.

There are others I am forgetting which I will add soon. There have been several times in the past 2 months that I have looked at Rebecca and said, 'Oh my God, why doesn't everybody do it that way?" But I have forgotten these things...But it just strikes me that an entrepreneur could travel from country to country and pick up "inventions" that he could make a mint off in the US. Granted some of these things are not things that are easily marketed and could make money off. The speed limit signs and parking garage signs are infrastructure/govt type items that the government would have to endorse and pay for, which would not be likely.