© Miro Zalokar
Bled offers free rides with the “Tinček” electric minibus, primarily intended to be used by senior citizens and users with motor impairments. This sustainable mobility option improves the availability of public services for vulnerable groups, making it easier for them to move around Bled.
© Miro Zalokar
Long beard, scraggly hair, three-quarter-length trousers with crossed suspenders, bare feet or slipshod shoes worn without socks: the striking features of Grabnarjev Tinček, real name Martin Vidic (1897 – 1969), are still remembered by some of the locals who say that Tinček was, above all, a good man, but also the first taxi driver in Bled who liked to help people in a jam get to the hospital, to the train station, or to various offices in Radovljica and Jesenice – often for free, only accepting a heartfelt “Thank you!” in return.
Tinček, who was born in the settlement of Mlino in the vicinity of Bled, was the son of Katra, who came from a renowned Erlah – Grabnar family from Žažar. His father was a miller. After finishing elementary school, he trained as a carpenter and then left to live in Belgrade in 1922, working as a bellhop. He came back to Bled around 1931, purchased an old car, supposedly a small Chevrolet or Ford, and started driving guests who mainly spent their summer holidays in Bled.
Just before the war, he purchased a new Opel Kadett Cabrio that got repossessed at the end of the war. Even though the loss of his new car was a huge blow for Tinček, he kept on working as a taxi driver, driving people around in an old, obsolete Opel Kadett.
Here is what Božo Benedik, who wrote about him in the Gorenjski glas newspaper on 20 June 1997, said in his article called “Bled would not exist without its people”: “He was known for stopping at the road leading to Lesce or Radovljica, taking passengers along without any payment. Summer or winter, rain or shine, he was always willing to do them a favour. This is what made him so popular, loved and, after all, indispensable in Bled. He became a part of Bled, even with his modest car – it was only towards the end of his adventures that he purchased a new car. But he redesigned and converted every single one of them, used gas bottles, and was always accompanied by his dog Lajka, whether the passengers liked it or not!”
© Miro Zalokar
Free rides with the “Tinček” minibus are enabled by the Municipality of Bled. The purchase of minibuses was co-financed by the Eco Fund, the Slovenian public environmental fund operating under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning.
