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0 pointsdmoy6mo ago0 comments

> The sad thing is the reason the Bay Area lacks Tokyo-style transit is not technology, but social and political issues

Well and population / population density.

China is similar - the big 15-20m+ metros have crazy good subway systems. But SF bay area is half the low end? 7.5m or so? Harbin is 10m and its subway is kinda meh. Down at 5m metro population in e.g. Changchun or Jinan and it's a pretty piddling subway/city rail system.

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rsynnott6mo ago

This isn’t a great excuse. The Berlin metro area is smaller than that, and had to contend with _being split in half_ for 40 years, and still has an infinitely better public transport system than SF, say.

dmoyOP6mo ago

Sure, but even Berlin doesn't have Tokyo level of public transit.

By my comment I mean that the things GP list aren't the only things that separate SF public transit and Tokyo public transit. You'd also need crazy high population and density too.

I don't disagree with GP's list of things, I just think they're not exhaustive. They might be sufficient to get SF to Berlin level of public transit.

fch426mo ago

Berlin also invested billions into rebuilding much of its metro system in the 1990s and early 2000s. Now, 25y later, with investment having dropped off, it's occasionally creaking.

That said, to "beat BART" isn't a milestone for any public transport system anywhere. Except ... in the US, where even BART stands out as great. Hmm. Relatively.

(one part of me is kinda curious how the 101 would look like if you didn't do any work on it for 20 years. Mostly because it'd probably be a rather cool setting for some dystopian movie. Anyway ... transport infrastructure, whether public transport or roads, costs a f*ckton of money)

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