Cars as a measure of country's progress

Back in the UK, those who have never visited Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania often ask me, "So what is it really like? How developed is it?"

Usually I am evasive, answering in such a roundabout ways as, "Well, it depends on the direction that you are coming from."

Occasionally, I will suggest that it is "Better than you would expect" or that it is "The place for those people who want their friends to think that they are adventurous without actually having to be so."

In other words, I usually try to convey some sense of relative normality combined with a small flavor of adventure.

Sometimes I resort to the Big Mac index, long publicized by "The Economist," to give an indication of the level of economic development of the country.

Until recently, however, I have been stuck when attempting to factor in a lifestyle element along with the economic development, though I think I may now have hit upon the answer. I would like to present to you the "Car Park Coefficient."

The thought first struck me just before Christmas when, together with the other 600,000 inhabitants of Vilnius, I was doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Quite by chance and much to my delight, I stumbled across a multi-story car park.

The thing is, of course, that a multi-story car park is hardly rocket science, but in nearly four years in the Baltics, I have not seen anything remotely like it before.

What was equally intriguing was that the ticketing system was simple (buy a fixed amount of time on entry and pay for any extra time on exit) and that unlike me, the good citizens of Vilnius were using it without raising an eyelid (they had no reason to).

It was such a wonderfully "normal" experience that I remained sublimely happy throughout the hard Christmas shopping that followed.

Of course, the challenge of the Baltics is that for every step forward there is often a step back, and I'm afraid that mine came at the airport as I prepared to travel back to the UK for the holidays.

Let's just say that my Car Park Coefficient took something of a knock when I tried to park my car in the long stay lot at Vilnius airport.

In order to achieve this objective, I had to execute (approximately) the following procedure:

• Get out of the car

• Explain to the attendant how long I would like to stay (seven nights, if you were wondering)

• Present to him my ownership documents

• Wait while he wrote the details down and put my signature next to his entry

• Pay him

• Explain how many hours I needed to stay on the day of my return (eight, before you ask)

• Wait some more while he wrote this down and signed it again

• Pay some more

• Get my documents back together with two signed receipts and run like hell to catch my plane.

The whole operation took about 15 minutes. Of course, it was done for the best of reasons - the security of my car for the seven days, eight hours that I was out of the country.

However, it still seems to me an intrusive and ludicrously bureaucratic way to go about doing that, in sharp contrast to the efficient multi-story car park experience I had so recently enjoyed.

So, at the start of 1999, my personal Car Park Coefficient stands at about 7 (out of a maximum of 10).

I look forward to the excitement of another year during which it continues its sometimes slow but nevertheless inexorable rise and wish all TBT readers every success for the coming 12 months.