3 ms·

I also felt that the article made European transport systems appear better than they really are in order to make a point. That being said it is true that the me

by simias 8y ago

I also felt that the article made European transport systems appear better than they really are in order to make a point. That being said it is true that the metro keeps expanding (they're currently expanding the line 14 towards the north, hopefully in order to take some of the load of the extremely overcrowded line 13) and they've also extended one tramway line recently. On top of that public transportation in Paris is heavily subsidized and pretty cheap, a lot cheaper than London for instance. On the other hand it's true that many Parisian stations are simply disgusting and could urgently use a renovation. Given how hugely touristic Paris is it's quite shameful really.

lucb1e 8y ago
Yeah I'm also not a big fan of the French metro, and as a Dutchman living in Germany I can say that the German also leaves quite something to be desired. I can't imagine what the American system must look like if it's made out like that. Anyone here who lived in the Netherlands as well as the USA to compare?
- magduf 8y ago
  >and as a Dutchman living in Germany I can say that the German also leaves quite something to be desired. Where in Germany do you live? I was just in Munich and the U-bahn there is fantastic compared to anything I've ever seen in America. It was crowded during rush hour, but aside from that, everything was clean and organized, and the trains were really quite smooth to ride on unlike the ones in DC and NYC.
  - lucb1e 8y ago
    I guess in big cities like Cologne, Berlin and Munich, it's probably equivalent. In and around Aachen, the bus schedule is more of a "definitely not before" schedule (e.g. "09:30 Bushof" does not mean "bus will be around 09:30 at the bushof", it means "bus will definitely not be at the bushof before 09:30, but some time after that, and before the next one is scheduled to go"). It's not reliably late, either: some days it's 1 minute late, some days 10. You also can't see when it will be late: there does not seem to be live tracking that tells you within a minute when the bus will actually be there. I only recently found the website from the local company that can tell the difference between "within 5 minutes on time" and "more than 5 minutes late". It tells you "+3" (rounded to the minute it seems) but that could mean anything between +3 and, say, +8, and after the departure time +3 minutes, it just removes it from the departures list, even if you're standing at the stop and you're sure quite sure it hasn't left yet... Deutsche Bahn and Öffi claim to have realtime data but they don't. Having to get info from disparate companies is another thing: in the Netherlands there is a collective of public transport companies (iirc it's NDOV) that creates a common standard that apps and websites can use for information (things like the coordinates of all stations and stops, schedules, and delays precise to a few seconds). It just seems like a big mess, probably due to the lower population density. On the upside, that lower density means you actually have nature: I can drive an hour and be in the middle of nowhere. Having that space is kind of nice. That just doesn't exist in the Netherlands (there doesn't seem to be any place more than 500 metres removed from any road, path or building). That said, > compared to anything I've ever seen in America I haven't been to the USA so I can't make that comparison. Like I said, I can't imagine what the American system must look like if it's made out to be so much worse than Germany.

by simias 8y ago

lucb1e 8y ago

Yeah I'm also not a big fan of the French metro, and as a Dutchman living in Germany I can say that the German also leaves quite something to be desired. I can't imagine what the American system must look like if it's made out like that. Anyone here who lived in the Netherlands as well as the USA to compare?

magduf 8y ago
>and as a Dutchman living in Germany I can say that the German also leaves quite something to be desired. Where in Germany do you live? I was just in Munich and the U-bahn there is fantastic compared to anything I've ever seen in America. It was crowded during rush hour, but aside from that, everything was clean and organized, and the trains were really quite smooth to ride on unlike the ones in DC and NYC.
- lucb1e 8y ago
  I guess in big cities like Cologne, Berlin and Munich, it's probably equivalent. In and around Aachen, the bus schedule is more of a "definitely not before" schedule (e.g. "09:30 Bushof" does not mean "bus will be around 09:30 at the bushof", it means "bus will definitely not be at the bushof before 09:30, but some time after that, and before the next one is scheduled to go"). It's not reliably late, either: some days it's 1 minute late, some days 10. You also can't see when it will be late: there does not seem to be live tracking that tells you within a minute when the bus will actually be there. I only recently found the website from the local company that can tell the difference between "within 5 minutes on time" and "more than 5 minutes late". It tells you "+3" (rounded to the minute it seems) but that could mean anything between +3 and, say, +8, and after the departure time +3 minutes, it just removes it from the departures list, even if you're standing at the stop and you're sure quite sure it hasn't left yet... Deutsche Bahn and Öffi claim to have realtime data but they don't. Having to get info from disparate companies is another thing: in the Netherlands there is a collective of public transport companies (iirc it's NDOV) that creates a common standard that apps and websites can use for information (things like the coordinates of all stations and stops, schedules, and delays precise to a few seconds). It just seems like a big mess, probably due to the lower population density. On the upside, that lower density means you actually have nature: I can drive an hour and be in the middle of nowhere. Having that space is kind of nice. That just doesn't exist in the Netherlands (there doesn't seem to be any place more than 500 metres removed from any road, path or building). That said, > compared to anything I've ever seen in America I haven't been to the USA so I can't make that comparison. Like I said, I can't imagine what the American system must look like if it's made out to be so much worse than Germany.