Whichever way you look at it, the world somehow no longer seems to be round. A kind of imbalance has set in. Just like a car tire, you have to readjust it or it starts to "egg". And we really do have enough eggheads already! Because wherever you look, there's egg on the face. One is inclined to quote the Colonia duet "Du Ei!" from the moth box.

Sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards, always with a delay

In fact, with all pressing issues, things sometimes move forward and then (quickly) back again, with the swings becoming more and more violent instead of less. We are familiar with this from process control, where there is always a certain time delay in the reaction, or rather: the reaction can be delayed. It is also familiar from temperature control when showering or steering a ship, where you are constantly chasing the desired result.

The oscillatory behavior of such systems is well understood, at least mathematically, in the hope of achieving rapid convergence. However, if the measures are too half-hearted, the opposite can be achieved. Especially as the boundary conditions sometimes change radically.

Just think of the shift in public opinion towards controls. Whereas at the time people were happy to smuggle themselves past wherever and whatever without a ticket or with an invalid ticket, people are now downright outraged by the lack of precision and consistency. It remains to be seen whether this will continue in 2022 or whether the "laissez-faire" approach will return after (actually before!) the pandemic. But something will definitely remain, even if it's the "messing around"!

The corona virus is not particularly bothered by all this, but rather delighted by it. It is not subject to mood swings and is more like a pre-programmed robot. And it finds ideal opportunities to spread in the political decision-making vacuum. However, physics teaches us that even a vacuum is not completely empty, i.e. different from absolute "nothingness". A glimmer of hope at last?

Novel: The secret word of the year

The word of the year 2021 should actually be "novella". However, literature lovers tend to think of a short story about an event (from the Italian novella, "little news") with a specific purpose. Who doesn't know "Der Schimmelreiter" by Theodor Storm? Unfortunately, however, the poor word has a second, more serious meaning, namely that it refers to a law that supplements or amends an existing law. This often does not contain "small news", but sometimes something really big.

After all, the amendments to the "Infection Protection Act", or "Corona Amendment" for short, are always eagerly awaited. It makes you stop for a moment and think that this is actually intended to break the next "corona wave" (just the fourth). In principle, the choice of words is not so stupid if you change the spelling just a little: Corona-No-Wave. Well, if it helps!

Uninhibited life on the streets will be expensive

Another amendment has also (finally!) seen the light of day (in the Bundesrat): the StVO amendment. This includes, in particular, the amendment to the catalog of fines, which makes "uninhibited" life on the road really expensive. This also applies to cyclists: no bell (€15), riding side by side (€20), talking on the phone (€55) and ignoring a red light for one second (€100 + one point). But who wants to check all that? It doesn't even work with 2G, 2G+, 3G, 3G+, 4G, 5G (what about the last two?). As a physics student, you at least know what a "g" is, namely the acceleration due to gravity of 9.81 ^m/s2, and you can't simply increase it by adding a "+" (g+), not even in 2022!

Meanwhile, discussions about air pollutants continue to sweep across the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently tightened the old limit values from 2005 for particulate matter of various sizes and nitrogen dioxide in September. However, we will have to wait and see how much of this actually reaches the EU, as the 2005 limits were also adopted in a somewhat "softened" form. But the issue is on the agenda.

Just like the_{CO2 debate}, if it really was one. You often read "Co2_" in serious texts. But Co stands for cobalt (not corona!), a "ferromagnetic transition metal". And this element plays its most important role in lithium-ion batteries, namely as a cathode material. This is obviously an opaque game. One is somehow reminded of the world of "antinomies", where people are interested in such beautiful sentences as: "I'm not telling the truth now". But who cares about that anyway?

30 km/h in urban areas and 120 km/h on the highway?

But if it really_is about_{CO2 and} NOx (strangely enough, "Nox" doesn't actually appear), the call for speed limits to reduce them is becoming ever louder. This will definitely be with us in 2022, regardless of how the Ministry of Transport is (or will be) staffed. And if the government doesn't get it right, we still have Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), embodied by Jürgen Resch. His way to the Federal Constitutional Court is quite short, almost standard. So 30 km/h in built-up areas, 80 km/h on country roads and 120 km/h on highways will be up for discussion. The issue is as sticky and tough as wrongly mixed dough, with no flour in sight.

But there is also the adjusting screw of petrol and diesel prices. They currently only go in one direction, with no limit in sight. Driving becomes really expensive, even without highway or congestion charges. And electric cars are not available at a bargain price either. This raises doubts about the mobile concepts.

Because how do we want to get around in the future, sometime after Corona? In any case, the train seems to have left local public transport. Passengers are simply staying away. That smacks of "sustainability". The alternative is to work from home or get on a bike (or pedelec). And you can also do a lot on foot. Will the car end up becoming a luxury vehicle?

Humans have always been great at blanking out

No, the purely human decision-making behavior is as crazy as the whole situation. Nowhere do users misjudge as much as when it comes to the running costs of their car. It's easy to turn a blind eye. Humans have always been great at turning a blind eye. After all, living in a parallel universe is a very carefree way of life. And you don't have to be a crazy conspiracy theorist to do that!

About the author: Prof. Dr. Michael Schreckenberg, born in 1956, studied theoretical physics at the University of Cologne, where he received his doctorate in statistical physics in 1985. In 1994, he moved to the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he was awarded the first German professorship for the physics of transport and traffic in 1997. For LT-manager, Schreckenberg summarized the transport year coming to an end from 2012 to 2019. A tradition that the professor is now continuing in materialfluss.

The article appeared in materialfluss WELT DER INTRALOGISTIK 2021.