4 ms·

Having done both, and living in a city with a supposedly functioning public transport system, not being beholden to a time table outweighs all of that so hard t

Having done both, and living in a city with a supposedly functioning public transport system, not being beholden to a time table outweighs all of that so hard that it's not even funny.

carlmr 3y ago
I get what you're saying. But there are cities where you don't need to worry about a timetable, there's just a constant stream of trains coming through. I'm thinking of Tokyo, Shanghai, or Vienna for example. The rate of trains coming in in these cities is such that I rarely have to worry about a timetable. I just need to know which trains connect where. The problem is the cities in between, which is probably the majority, where public transit is not used enough to warrant such high number of trains. If the public transit system was used more, you could schedule more trains, if you had more trains it would be used more. It's kind of a chicken and egg situation where you need a lot of political will, or such density that it becomes necessity, to push for this.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- majewsky 3y ago
  I remember hearing a news report about a study where they found that the critical limit for public transit schedules is 6 minutes. Once trains or buses come more often than that, people stop looking at timetables and just go to the platform whenever they are ready to depart. This lines up with my own experience. On weekdays, trams go every 5 minutes at my stop. On weekends, they go every 7.5 minutes. And that's just enough over the edge for me that I'm tempted to check the schedule on my phone before leaving my home.
malermeister 3y ago
Which city are you talking about? I don't think there's a city like that in the US. However, living in Vienna, I can't imagine ever owning a car. There's a super dense network of subways and trams - the subway goes every 2 minutes at rush hour and I can be anywhere in the city within 25 minutes.
- Nullabillity 3y ago
  Stockholm.
  - malermeister 3y ago
    I've never been, so I can't judge. What are your main gripes with public transport there?

Having done both, and living in a city with a supposedly functioning public transport system, not being beholden to a time table outweighs all of that so hard that it's not even funny.

carlmr 3y ago

I get what you're saying. But there are cities where you don't need to worry about a timetable, there's just a constant stream of trains coming through. I'm thinking of Tokyo, Shanghai, or Vienna for example. The rate of trains coming in in these cities is such that I rarely have to worry about a timetable. I just need to know which trains connect where. The problem is the cities in between, which is probably the majority, where public transit is not used enough to warrant such high number of trains. If the public transit system was used more, you could schedule more trains, if you had more trains it would be used more. It's kind of a chicken and egg situation where you need a lot of political will, or such density that it becomes necessity, to push for this.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
majewsky 3y ago
I remember hearing a news report about a study where they found that the critical limit for public transit schedules is 6 minutes. Once trains or buses come more often than that, people stop looking at timetables and just go to the platform whenever they are ready to depart. This lines up with my own experience. On weekdays, trams go every 5 minutes at my stop. On weekends, they go every 7.5 minutes. And that's just enough over the edge for me that I'm tempted to check the schedule on my phone before leaving my home.

malermeister 3y ago

Which city are you talking about? I don't think there's a city like that in the US. However, living in Vienna, I can't imagine ever owning a car. There's a super dense network of subways and trams - the subway goes every 2 minutes at rush hour and I can be anywhere in the city within 25 minutes.

Nullabillity 3y ago
Stockholm.
- malermeister 3y ago
  I've never been, so I can't judge. What are your main gripes with public transport there?