The fact that he said the best brisket he has ever had was in NY totally disqualifies him of any rational opinion. Although, as a person that lives in Houston, I do agree with him about most of the stuff on public transportation.
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"An advanced city is not one where the poor can get around by car, but one where even the rich use public transportation."
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The fact that he said the best brisket he has ever had was in NY totally disqualifies him of any rational opinion. Although, as a person that lives in Houston, I do agree with him about most of the stuff on public transportation.
OP
OP
There are a few Texas pitmasters that have consulted some nyc bbq joints. Not impossible at all. I've been to few and they're just as good.
However, that is the top tier.
Texas has way more.
But back to NYC, this happened because NYC hosts a big BBQ festival in the city every summer. Those festivals helped fuel a BBQ restaurant fad that peeked in the early 2010s.
Just re NYC, 24/7 makes it better than any non 24/7, that's just the way it is. I studied abroad in Tokyo and having an imposed curfew just ain't it.
that said I'm sitting on the metro in DC which is currently single tracking with 15 min between trains so it's going to take me 2 hours to get to work for what would be a 20-30 min drive.
that said I'm sitting on the metro in DC which is currently single tracking with 15 min between trains so it's going to take me 2 hours to get to work for what would be a 20-30 min drive.
That's wild, I didn't know North American zoning rules were that strict.
As a Brit I guess take it for granted that shops/cafes etc pop up whereever convenient.
OP
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And many Americas love this and think living near to businesses is bad thing lol.
I've used public transit systems in a variety of countries across Europe, but have never tried the ones in Asia.
Do rich people in tokyo take the subway and get squeezed in like sardines like other salarymen?
I can think of a lot of neighborhoods that look like the first video but are absolutely plagued with road noise from the street. That's an engineering issue, and one that many cities are very reticent to take action on. If it were up to most motorists, there would be no speed restrictions and a gas station on every corner.
As with zoning, the solution is to change the guidelines. There are plenty of smaller cities where developers would happily build warehouses rather than affordable housing in the absence of any regulation. People see wide sidewalks as liability and upkeep.
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Which is absurd, I have three supermarkets, a book store, a butcher, several hair salons, doctors, pharmacies, florists, a physical therapist, two dentists, at least five bakeries, two cafes, an ice cream parlor and various other smaller shops all within walking distance. It would drive me crazy if I had to drive somewhere just because I forgot to buy butter or whatever.
If I want to go somewhere else there's a train station, two tram stations and several bus stops also all within walking distance, I sold my car a few months ago because I barely used it anymore.
The subway in Tokyo isn't that full, most of the time it's perfectly fine with enough empty seats or at least enough room to stand for a few minutes until a seat becomes available, it's only during rush hour in the morning and afternoon that it's full and then only on a few lines. During rush hour some subways drive every two minutes.
I don't agree with the extremeness of their post but I've lived in Toronto, Tokyo, months in NYC, France, Italy etc. And now live California. I've had a lot of pretty gross experiences, racist people on public transit. I don't think 'fuck the planet' though. I own a Tesla now and Southern California is no NY/Tokyo and most likely never will be. I'd love for it to be more like Tokyo/Seoul but it will never happen. (Electric) Cars are better for a lot of things especially with kids, appointments, clubs/equipment etc. And where I live there are super chargers pretty much always in a 2-3 km radius, not to mention normal slow chargers literally everywhere. Best car I've ever had, no contest. So us car people aren't all 'fuck the planet.' In fact, quite the opposite. Just sayin' :)
I wish every major metro area saw public transit that way OP. I look at many parts of the world that have invested in public transit a lot more than the USA has and it's incredible. It brings so much value to a city. While here in the Bay Area where I live, the transit is "pretty good" by American standards, it's still below where it should be when looking what other counties have done with modern transit initiatives. But then, most of the countries that have those amazing transit systems also tend to be societies where people respect and value "public property" which isn't so in the USA. I think we are reaping what we sow here.
None of this is a thing on public transit in, say, Japan or Korea. So it's not a public transit problem but really a people problem of whenever you're from (NA?)
Americas dumb as car culture is a fucking blight.
When I've been in places where they have a functional public transportation system where you are never more than a few minutes from a train or a bus, its like living in some kind of fucking utopia. Here in Salt Lake City, I have about a 25 minute drive to work, I looked up public transportation.. would take 2 fucking hours each way.
When I've been in places where they have a functional public transportation system where you are never more than a few minutes from a train or a bus, its like living in some kind of fucking utopia. Here in Salt Lake City, I have about a 25 minute drive to work, I looked up public transportation.. would take 2 fucking hours each way.
I live just outside NYC (Hudson County, NJ), and my rule has always been that I absolutely never drive in NYC unless absolutely necessary. Public transit is always the better option.
That said, the most frustrating part of living in this area is that any potential for improvement is usually quashed by NIMBY-ism. NJ just approved the Hudson-Essex Greenway (a greenbelt connecting the western edge of Jersey City to Montclair), but the approved plans don't have any light rail, partially uses a now-unused rail right-of-way, and won't connect to the existing West End Avenue light rail station. It's great that there's now a bike path, but even on something intrastate, it's frustrating that there's no transit there.
A big chunk of northeastern NJ used to be streetcar communities -- you'd commute by streetcar into Newark/Elizabeth/Paterson, and you'd get a nice mix of decently dense housing (but not so dense you don't get stuff like a small personal yard). The current HBLR provides for some of that outside of Hoboken/Jersey City (it basically transformed a large swath of Bayonne into a streetcar community, and the real estate market there was going nuts pre-pandemic because of it), but the "B" (for Bergen County) in HBLR never happened because of NIMBYs (rich folks in Ridgewood say they don't want "the poors" coming in... on their way to the "heavy" rail station already there).
"access to transportation is the SINGLE most important factor in economic mobility.
youtu.be
tl:dw public transportation sucks in US because of capitalism, and probably systemic racism.
Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US
Learn for free for two months over at http://Skl.sh/wendoverThe Wendover Productions behind-the-scenes Skillshare course: http://skl.sh/wendover-classSubscri...
youtu.be
tl:dw public transportation sucks in US because of capitalism, and probably systemic racism.
I'm so fucking sick of seeing marketing from companies with shiny, glass building cities... flying cars and future nirvana... all while showing like 4 people walking and zero public transit.
We're all looking at the wrong type of future, and cities need dramatic rethinking that focuses 95% of activity on public transit.
We're all looking at the wrong type of future, and cities need dramatic rethinking that focuses 95% of activity on public transit.
This is interesting because as someone who's visited but never lived outside of the US for any period of time I always thought suburbia being dependent on cars was an unfortunate consequence of suburbia itself. But a society can have both? Suburban space and cohesive public transportation?
I would easily put it above Tokyo's. Tokyo's isn't bad, but it's not as modern as Seoul's and the weird stuff with various lines being run by different operators can make it a bit confusing to get around if you're not used to it. Seoul's also seemed more accessible in that it would announce (at the very least) major stops in multiple languages, which I don't remember being a think in Tokyo's metro. If I went to GS 25 or CU and bought a Cashbee or T Money card I didn't have to worry about not being able to use them on certain lines or buses. They just worked.
The NYC transit system has been criminally underfunded for a lifetime and has been ridden with scandals and embezzlement/ insanely overpaid workers.
By this point it should be world class and it certainly can. The bones of the system are clearly impressive, even though aesthetically it leaves a lot to be desired. Being able to go from literally any spot to/from the island to Bronx, Long Island or outskirts of NYC proper in a quick fashion is still impressive today.
By this point it should be world class and it certainly can. The bones of the system are clearly impressive, even though aesthetically it leaves a lot to be desired. Being able to go from literally any spot to/from the island to Bronx, Long Island or outskirts of NYC proper in a quick fashion is still impressive today.
NYC's subway system is also crumbling (because its over 70 years old) and hasn't been maintained well. This includes tunnels from Manhattan to other boroughs. NYC and state is trying to invest (new infrastructure bill should help), but I remain skeptical that we'll see major effort needed to overhaul the whole thing.
Yes! This video was posted earlier but it addresses that exact point.
NA suburbs of the earlier half of the 20th century were not designed around cars and were perfectly walkable. Instead of building giant acres of nothing but houses, all the amenities and services would be built into each neighbourhood so you could easily walk or bike or take a short transit trip to 80% of all the things you needed.
DC metro is a freaking travesty at this point. It's ridiculous how many issues it constantly has. When I used to go to downtown (either Red or Orange lines depending where I lived), shit was always broken. Half the escalators out of service, trains get stuck, single tracking, you name it. System is decent in theory to get folks to downtown and back (when it works), but its terrible if you want to go anywhere but downtown basically.
There's no probably."access to transportation is the SINGLE most important factor in economic mobility.
Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US
Learn for free for two months over at http://Skl.sh/wendoverThe Wendover Productions behind-the-scenes Skillshare course: http://skl.sh/wendover-classSubscri...
tl:dw public transportation sucks in US because of capitalism, and probably systemic racism.
Yup and that's part of the issue in regard to the Trains situation. Not to mention the TMA doesn't allow for one card for all lines and you have to get several cards to travel between trains if you don't have a service card for that month, and even then those don't always work for all the lines. Anyone thinking that Japan mingles the well off with those that take the TMA is kind of not actually studying Tokyo. And yeah I get it too, but you are right on it being an exaggeration.
It's not that we don't get the spirit of the quote, it's that in a lot of cases people look at these systems but don't take in the other factors to them. Zoning, cutting into spaces that would be better off for green or for a trolley, bike, or motorized walk way, or noise pollution, which is an issue. You can discuss both aspects of this, why Transit should be a thing, but also how to make it better.
Some will, but the more money you have the more likely you're driven around. It's the middle class and the lower class that tend to use it. You won't be seeing politicians and the high level execs using the TMA.
A lot of this was built upon the idea of family owned and operated businesses. Over the years those have been sold off or moved away because families don't want to keep operating them. Where I used to live we had a lot of this from Mexican families, however their kids in a lot of cases wanted to do something different so unless someone bought those shops, they closed up and in some cases were replaced with houses. This is not to mention the cost of living in a larger city and especially the city center area.
What times do you ride because from what my friend tells me it's pretty damn full most mornings until late afternoon, then when school gets out and late hours. It depends on the lines completely. Some local lines sure, not an issue for space, but when you get into the city center, kiss that space good bye for a lot of the time.
Thank you. Japan and the US have very different zoning laws. Not to mention some cities and towns have to come up with contention against green space. We used to have rails that ran into the town that I live in, but the city wanted more green space and replaced the trains with parks down the rain route. So now kids and people have more green space to hang out in and enjoy themselves.
In Japan there are rude people, don't let anyone tell you other wise. The rudeness comes in different forms. You have drunk Salarymen making comments, people will sleep on the train and take up a lot of space. There have been fights on the train, the notorious issue of touching that has lead to Women only train cars due to how bad it was getting. People with strollers doing dumb things with them and taking up more space and then getting mad if you bump them. Etc. And yes there are those who smell on there too, again I point to the salarymen.
It can, the issue is getting towns to okay it. Like I said the town I lived in removed it's trains for public park spaces because there wasn't enough park space for people to play in. The town really wanted it, so they kept buses and removed the trains. Part of the issues is that people want to have the transit but also want open space of their own for private use. (See the whole kids being to loud in apartments.) For me honestly, trollies are the best. I love trains but I think electric trollies work better in some sections.
Keep in mind the malls drove a lot of the businesses away from neighborhoods. And you do need ways to carry goods.
Car industry, also cities not paying up for transportation, you can also look at the movement of people, and let's not forget the consolidation of businesses. Western Electric (later bought out by At&T) was a huge company in Cicero IL, which is where the Hawthorn Experiment happened, and it had most of the town working for it. When it closed down money to keep up the transit system there declined so the CTA and other groups pulled back for a while. It's only recently that we've seen an uptick in buses and thankfully we still have the EL's pink line. But lets not pretend that the burbs didn't come from businesses moving out of the cities.
To be fair, the WMATA has been insanely de-funded over the years.
I don't live there, I jwas in Tokyo on vacation but I rode trains all day all over Tokyo, I stayed in Okubo, Shinjuku and took the Yamanote line from Shin-Okubo station almost every day or one of the lines from Higashi-Shinjuku station. It was by no means empty but not nearly as full as it is sometimes portrayed on tv with worked literally shoving people into the train. In the evening the trains tended to be pretty full but there was still breathing room while standing.
Yeah the different train lines in Japan was annoying. Especially how all the big cities have their own system. I did a study abroad in Hiroshima, and all their stuff uses their own system, which I got a card for. But every time I had to take a JR train I needed to buy a separate ticket. Not terrible, but worse than it could be. Also the trains stopping at night means you have to leave downtown by like 10:30, because my school was near the outside of the city. If I could have owned a car when I was there I would have.
At least here in Lisbon, if you live in the outskirts, you'll still need a car, but if you're close of a train/metro station, then you'll be fine.
Buses are not an option unless you don't have to wait more than 5 min for one to arrive, which is pratically impossible, unlike trains.
Cars will still be necessary, and IMO it's not a bad thing. It's more important to make them greener instead of trying to eliminate them.
Buses are not an option unless you don't have to wait more than 5 min for one to arrive, which is pratically impossible, unlike trains.
Cars will still be necessary, and IMO it's not a bad thing. It's more important to make them greener instead of trying to eliminate them.
Milord needs their private chariots to be insulated from the filthy riffraff at all times.
Agree, same as with NYC subway system. But that's the issue, isn't it? How could we have proper public transport when funding is constantly lowered. :(
That may very well be true, but you could build the worlds finest public transit system here and it wouldn't change how people act in public.
Can we please not do tragedy of the commons again.
Totally, it's usually the same ploy to say "look at how bad the government is at running things, we should really privatize this" as the infrastructure begins to decay without the money needed to uphold and improve it.
It sucks :-(
Totally, it's usually the same ploy to say "look at how bad the government is at running things, we should really privatize this" as the infrastructure begins to decay without the money needed to uphold and improve it.
It sucks :-(
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Yeah, those types of suburbs are actually probably more common in NJ and some New England areas than in other areas of the country because the Northeast is the oldest. They are mixed in with the with the shitty overly-car-dependent suburbs.
Public Transport means life. You walk to the station, you see a local shop, you buy stuff from there, because there are people walking around it will be less dangerous. Because you need to walk (even if a little bit) it is good for your health. Also saves on emissions and the cost of owning a car. And hey, less cars around means less cars parked in the street and less ugly useless parking areas as well.
Unfortunately I need to have a car because in São Paulo my dog can't ride the subway, so I have a car with the one and only purpose of driving my dog to a park every now and then. Which leads me to use a car instead of other means in other occasions too.
Unfortunately I need to have a car because in São Paulo my dog can't ride the subway, so I have a car with the one and only purpose of driving my dog to a park every now and then. Which leads me to use a car instead of other means in other occasions too.
Mate, I know exactly how you feel.
Dallasite here. I wouldn't trade the couple months I've spent in Tokyo for anything, but there is a tiny part of my brain that regrets it because now being stuck here in Dallas is painful knowing what I'm missing. Knowing that a better life is possible and simultaneously impossible. The path for any Texas city to go from present day to anything approaching Tokyo is undoubtedly a timeline that extends well past my lifetime. And our cities love walkable neighborhoods--they love making them with luxury condos and pricing everyone out. And those are STILL car dependent! Bunch of ugly parking garage podiums everywhere, the core is littered with them.
Like you say, experiencing the alternative was literally life changing. I want to move somewhere that I can have that life, but I'm broke and the option just isn't available to me. It's frustrating as hell, and being forced to use a car just feels like another punishment for being broke. So much money just evaporates into car maintenance, which is always frequent since I can never afford a car with less than 100k miles on it.
North American urban planning is a sad joke. Decisions made decades before I was born regarding infrastructure, zoning, and other elements has resulted in this car-dependent, coast-to-coast suburban hellscape we see nearly everywhere in the U.S. & Canada. Walking and biking simply aren't options due to how spread out everything is and how dangerous the roads are to anyone not in a motor vehicle, and only a few large cities have halfway reliable transit systems.
The older I get, the less tolerance I have for this bullshit. I hate having to drive everywhere. I hate the traffic. I hate the fact that because everyone essentially needs a car we've lowered the standards to obtain a driver's license to an abysmally low bar, making things unsafe by packing the roads with people who barely know how to drive.
But at some point, we're going to have to rethink how we design our cities. Gasoline will one day go bye-bye forever (either through phase-out to combat climate change or, less ideally, when we inevitably pass peak oil), and with them motor vehicles powered by it. I'd argue that instead of replacing them all with EVs, we should focus on sustainable development in the future. Cities don't need to sprawl. We can build denser. We can change our zoning codes to prioritize mixed-use development and generally make it to where suburban neighborhoods with single-family homes aren't the only residential areas to build. We can do so much better if we can disabuse ourselves of the entire notion of "car culture." Some people seem to think cars are "freedom-mobiles," but it doesn't seem like freedom when I'm forced to own a car and drive it everywhere just to function in daily life.
The older I get, the less tolerance I have for this bullshit. I hate having to drive everywhere. I hate the traffic. I hate the fact that because everyone essentially needs a car we've lowered the standards to obtain a driver's license to an abysmally low bar, making things unsafe by packing the roads with people who barely know how to drive.
But at some point, we're going to have to rethink how we design our cities. Gasoline will one day go bye-bye forever (either through phase-out to combat climate change or, less ideally, when we inevitably pass peak oil), and with them motor vehicles powered by it. I'd argue that instead of replacing them all with EVs, we should focus on sustainable development in the future. Cities don't need to sprawl. We can build denser. We can change our zoning codes to prioritize mixed-use development and generally make it to where suburban neighborhoods with single-family homes aren't the only residential areas to build. We can do so much better if we can disabuse ourselves of the entire notion of "car culture." Some people seem to think cars are "freedom-mobiles," but it doesn't seem like freedom when I'm forced to own a car and drive it everywhere just to function in daily life.
So many people here want to live in super dense cities where everyone is packed together and there's business mixed in with housing and somehow all your jobs are close enough to walk to.
There was a time when I'd be up for that. I tried living downtown in my city. Couldn't walk to work though, that wasn't really an option, but I tried everything else. It wasn't bad, but the older I get the more I just want to live out away from things and deal with as few people as possible. I just want quiet and isolation.
There was a time when I'd be up for that. I tried living downtown in my city. Couldn't walk to work though, that wasn't really an option, but I tried everything else. It wasn't bad, but the older I get the more I just want to live out away from things and deal with as few people as possible. I just want quiet and isolation.
Yeah I'm the exact opposite of most of the sentiments in this thread. I grew up in NYC and all I ever knew was the subway, I didn't learn how to drive a car till I was 27 and moved away. Now I live in a small city in the American southwest and I got to say I freaking love it. The freedom to get up and go wherever you want at a drop of a hat is amazing, as is popping out to get some food from a drive-thru without fully getting dressed. I understand the downsides but I reject the idea that public transportation is more enjoyable than driving, especially if you're not in some large metropolis.