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The Boston T is not anywhere near as good as the NYC subway, but this is really beside the point: both systems are decrepit, and in no way stack up to modern pu
by DiogenesKynikos 2y ago
The Boston T is not anywhere near as good as the NYC subway, but this is really beside the point: both systems are decrepit, and in no way stack up to modern public transit systems. Yet these are the best systems the US has to offer.
> Nobody has access to all of the possibilities.
Most people don't know what's out there, so they can't make an informed choice about what would be good public policy. That's my point.
> Is, at least in America, determined by the choices of ordinary people in the past.
I don't think most people understood the consequences of the decisions they were making. The transition to cars and the building of the interstate system had a huge number of ripple effects, and have completely transformed American cities, and as a consequence, public life. People didn't understand all these changes beforehand, and now they're locked in and taken for granted.
> I could just as well say you don't have the ability to choose anything but a city with public transportation, because that's all that even appears to be on your radar.
The reason I'm saying what I'm saying is that I've spent enough time on the three continents we're talking about to have seen the differences in public transit and how it affects city life.
- pdonis 2y ago> The Boston T is not anywhere near as good as the NYC subway My experience of the T is some decades old; I understand it has indeed deteriorated quite a bit since then. But when I used it, I had reasonably contemporary experience of the NYC system as well, and the latter, at that time, was not as good. Any such comparison will of course change over time. > how it affects city life. Which, again, is all that appears to be on your radar. But not everyone's life is "city life".
- DiogenesKynikos 2y agoThey obviously don't have metro systems in Chinese villages. But Chinese cities do have great metro systems, while American cities are lucky to have any metro at all, or even a decent bus network or a few tram lines. > My experience of the T is some decades old Yes, it's extremely old. The Green Line looks like something out of the early 20th Century, and an important stretch of the Red Line had to be shut down a few years ago for emergency repairs, because they suddenly determined that it was too dangerous to continue operating. The whole system is on life support. The NYC Subway is the only American system that could possibly compare to systems like the Paris Metro or the London Tube. But as I said, all these systems are terrible compared to the standard metro system you'll find in large cities in East Asia. Mainland Chinese cities have fairly standardized (which is how they keep costs down), very modern systems based on the Hong Kong metro. Taipei has a great metro system with a similar design. Japanese cities also have very extensive metro systems. I've heard great things about the Seoul metro system (though I haven't seen it first-hand). But my point is that 90+% Americans have no idea about these systems. Without some basic exposure to the alternatives that are out there, it's pointless to say that Americans have made an informed choice. They make due with what they have, and largely don't know what the alternatives could be.
- pdonis 2y ago> Without some basic exposure to the alternatives that are out there, it's pointless to say that Americans have made an informed choice. What is your exposure to alternatives other than the one you have said you prefer?
- DiogenesKynikos 2y agoI've lived in various American cities with different levels of public transit. As I said, I far prefer the typical city layout in Europe and East Asia.