5 ms·

The US is like this too. Almost no American cities have reliable public transit, and even in those that do, like NYC or Chicago, the stations are pretty filthy

• brailsafe 3y ago
  Not just hostile, but an ironically delusional comment considering what you're correct in stating about the U.S, but also that Ottawa is a newsworthy exception among cities in Canada with municipal trains, save for perhaps the first week after Montreal's recent build. To anyone who's "started travelling" (how smug), they'd realize that Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, maybe even Calgary and Edmonton to lesser extents have viable or great municipal train systems. They aren't Tokyo great, or Paris great, but they are pretty good and usually clean. Among developed countries, I can think of a few that since visiting, while novel, I've actively chose Vancouver over; other cities in Canada would probably not win out, but that's why broad statements about countries shouldn't be taken seriously.
  • ClimaxGravely 3y ago
    Definitely. I live in Vancouver and it's quite good for North America. There's also a decent amount of anti-public transit people here that tend to make their job a bit harder. I live in a part of town where almost everyone except me drives and I remember chatting to my neighbors when we had a transit funding referendum. The details are a bit hazy because I think it was around 2016 but in my area people were more or less unanimous when it came to preventing public transit funding. I do have a few personal gripes about the new skytrain line being full at rush hour but for what it's worth I had the same issue with the main circle line in Tokyo. Rush-hour is rush-hour no matter what your method of transport.
    • brailsafe 3y ago
      Agreed on all fronts. Those Tokyo lines are insane at rush hour, and almost dead silent at every other time; it's kind of the nature of homogenous commute types, it's just hella more efficient to do it with trains than anything else we have. Thankfully, the new subway extension should help distribute people a little more evenly, and I believe TransLink is looking start running longer trains, which should provide a little more capacity at peak times.
• easton 3y ago
  I will say DC’s are pretty clean by US standards, although I might be biased living there. They have lots of cleaning staff.
  • nukeman 3y ago
    DC has an advantage in newness and in materials selection (tiny tiles with lots of grout looks cool for 5 minutes), as well as having relatively fewer station layouts. t. former NoVa resident
    • euroderf 3y ago
      Putting station walls behind handrails, out of reach of graffiti "artistes", also helps.
      • eastbound 3y ago
        Coping mechanisms always astonish me. No, it is not normal to lose function (passengers/square feet) over uncivil behavior.
        • foldr 3y ago
          The DC metro stations are very spacious. Been a long while since I lived in DC but they weren't crowded compared to stations in NYC or London.
          • bobthepanda 3y ago
            It was specifically a Great Society program meant to contrast with Soviet metros and their ornate architecture. NYC and London have the issue where they were first generation systems trying to figure out what worked and what did not. DC’s general height limits in conjunction with typical American SFH friendly zoning also do not help utilization.
        • rayiner 3y ago
          That’s america in a nutshell. We can’t infringe on people’s precious individual expression and self actualization after all. That said in the DC system, expense was traded off in favor of cleanliness and lack of crowding—the stations are enormous (and very costly).