American reacts to Why American public transit is so bad
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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I´m an Austrian and at the countryside the buses drive with an average of every 30 minutes, at the city it's about every 5 to 10 minutes. It´is pretty shocking for me how messed up your system over there is.
Wtf? That’s so good…
In my UK city it’s once every 30 minutes, and in the UK village (not even a small village) I used to live in it was twice a day! We have a lot to learn from the continent
I live in Frankfurt, Germany and i can get to all important parts of the city within 10-30 minutes by using the S-Bahn. It's much more practical than using a car here
Still depends on where you are, and we are not that well off everywhere in austria either. (apart from cities)
I am not far from the second largest city in austria, and i have 3 busses into this city in the morning, and 4 back home after noon. 06:30, 07:30 and 09:30 in, 12:40, 13:30, 15:45 and 18:30 back out of the city. And that's roughtly 9km from the city borders.
And i can't get to work by public transport either. It's just 6km on the road (where you are in danger if you try to cycle or walk as there's 90% big trucks transporting goods with drivers looking on their mobile phones or navigational devices instead of the road, and if i used public transport it would take between 1,5 hours and 3 hours to get to work and home on the same day...and mean a >20km detour)
Fun thing: because of the building of a new train track the last 3 years, the shortest road to work was unusable. (they dug it up to make a tunnel for the train)
My distance to work doubled during that time, and it increased fuel consumption significantly.
And now that the train track is underneath the road, i can use the 6km road again.
Before that, i had 2 roundabouts and no traffic lights for the 6km of road. ->quite energy saving to drive as i only had to roll straight through with a bit of looking ahead, almost no braking needed.
Now, they added 9(!)sets of traffic lights, and the switching as as worse as it can get. So at least 4 of the 9 are always red which means i have to stop and accellerate again. The highly celebrated new train track increased my fuel consumption by 50%. (and the time it takes too)
To me the new train track means more CO2 emitted and more money i have to spend to get to and from work.
(and no, of course i can't use the train track to get to work either)
Same in my part of Norway. I live pretty rural, still buses goes every half hour during rush hours.
And in Vienna you dont need a car.
Using public transportation in bigger European Cities - in my case Vienna - it is exactly like you say at 9:27 . You do not pay attention to any schedule during daytime, as the next bus/tram/subway will come within minutes all over the city - even in suburbs.
You can expect regional service during daytime with bus/train in and out of the the city every 30 minutes.
For Vienna public transportation is mostly the fastest way to get from A to B in the city.
Especially after putting in all the "30er Zonen" where you are allowed to only drive 30kph.
I am just adding, not correcting:
In Vienna, which also is my hometown, we actually have such a good network, that once laid out really does look like a net. Most of the time the "Öffis" (short for Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel or public transportation) are on-time. However, nowadays (2023 for future watchers and readers of this comment) they are looking for personnel, so some lines are a little messed up on their schedule.
And yet during the 10 years i worked in vienna, i still wittnessed a huge numner of people who ran towards the closing doors of the subway like their life depended on it. (even though the next one was 2 minutes away and less packed)
Never understood that.
@@nirfz but you gotta admit, there's no funnier thing then a viennese subway driver, passive aggressively yelling at those people who are still trying to catch the subway because they can't wait three more minutes for the next train - "schleicht's eich vo de Tian es Wappla".
@@moritzbela2333 The funniest one i remember (was maybe 15 years ago) where a huge mass of people rushed to one entrance of a long almost empty train and the driver said:
(Liebe Passagiere, dieser Zug ist 175m lang. Genauso wie der niedrigere der zwei Türme des Stephansdoms. Das heißt er hat noch 5 andere Türen die sie benutzen können. Sie müssen nicht alle bei der gleichen Türe einsteigen."
("Dear passengers, this train is 175 m long just like the shorter one of the two towers of St. Stephans cathedral. It has 5 other entrances, you could use, you don't need to all get in via the same entrance.")
As it came quite unexpected i busted out laughing. (i was already inside the train for 4 or 5 stops and had shaken my head about the people in this station for this very reason)
@@nirfz XD
In German cities like Berlin you can't miss the subway, because there is one every 3 minutes. So you don't even need a car. I was quite shocked about your reaction about the bus every 5 minutes.
But you'll still be in Berlin, which sucks.
@@aczero1989 i like Berlin
@@aczero1989 what's wrong with Berlin
@@aniketmane6232 the question is what is wrong with aczero1989
Yeah but outside of big cities you have a Bus 3 times a day if you are lucky...
I have a busstop right infront of my door but i never used it...
I think Ryan thinks transportation costs are low, because like most drivers, he just includes gas/petrol use. He does not include cost of vehicle, depreciation of that vehicle, any taxes on that vehicle and any repairs/servicing of that vehicle. When you include EVERY cost of a car, you see you are paying a LOT! And if American's keep their love of cars, then forget about fixing the climate crisis, with all that entails!
Insurance, registration
And don´t forget reapir cost 💀💀💀💀💀💀
You forgot the cost for road maintenance, which is like half of the total cost of owning a motor vehicle, but paid by everyone not just drivers. And the rent doubling from all those buildings demolished to make highways, when will people realise that making other people's lives more difficult hurts everyone below the top 0.001% richest people on earth and lowers the maximum income potential of those richest people in the process.
In Germany, the basic costs (insurance, tax, inspection) for a car are an average of €130 to €150 per month, plus the petrol costs.
Therefore, driving to work often only makes sense if you work in shifts, take colleagues with you or members of the household have almost the same commute to work, or public transport takes much longer and is very difficult to reach.
We live in a small community between a small town and a big city, currently there is a rail replacement service as the S-Bahn line needs repairs-> to get to the small town, my public transport app recommended that I take my bike ;) * faster than with the replacement bus or the regular bus line!
And parking!
OMG bro, you spend more than 13 hours a week just driving 😳. You're losing a lot of free/resting time and quality of live inside your car, man. That sounds crazy to me.
Absolutely. Imagine to be able to catch a train and read or sleep or simply rest… just great
Unless you enjoy driving in a independent manner as I do!
@@timothyreel716 I like the activity of driving on its own, but if I'm not on a leisure ride, and I actually need to get somewhere, everything about it becomes frustrating. Congestion, bad drivers, bad traffic engineering that was supposed to help drivers but makes drivers and everyone else more miserable instead, stress, vehicle issues, increased danger... If I can hop on a train/tram/bus instead, I can chill.
@@Outfrost Well, each to their own, the majority of Americans don't want it, only those in Cities.
@@timothyreel716 As a rule of thumb, unless you're a member of the GOP, don't make statements that are easily proven false. You're one google search away from finding out just how wrong you are.
Hello Ryan, in Germany time between two departures is 10 minutes for bus, 10-15 minutes for tram, 30-60minutes for train on a small to medium sized city and surroundings. And we currently discuss about uniforming prices via Deutschland-Ticket for 49€ a month (covering all public transportation services). The 19€ ticket in the past was a huge success. A bus station is within 5 minutes walk in most cases.
It's surprising that the waiting time is longer for trams over there. In my country, the waiting time between two trams is usually 5 to 10 minutes (in a medium sized city, it tends to be more frequent as the city becomes bigger). Trams are generally a bit more frequent than buses here (around 10 minutes for buses).
@@xenotyposdepends on where you live in Germany. I live in Hamburg and we have no trams at all. But in southern Germany they are pretty common. But that's why buses take the role of trams
That sounds pretty much like evening hours. During the day our trams come every 5-10 minutes and buses about every 10.
I lived in London for 20 years, never used my car for local transit, it was purely for weekends away and visiting friends and family in the rest of the country, 9 times out of 10 the battery would be flat when I wanted to use it because it had been sitting unused for weeks. Bus, Tube and Train got me to and from work every day, without fail. Public transport seems to work in European cities, where the population density is high, it sort of works. I now live in a rural area in Cornwall, a county at the south west tip of the UK, buses run twice a day and the nearest bus stop is a couple of miles away, I use my car....
same in Germany.. When i used to live in a big city i didnt even own a car because everything was reachable by puplic transport. Now i live in a rural area and the bus comes 4-5 times a day. During school holidays even less. The bus doesnt even drive into the next big industrial area, it just passes it without a stop nearby.. crazy huh?
But next May we are getting a 49 Euro( per month) Germany Ticket which is nice.
I'm in Sweden. The same story here. You don't need a car if you live in the bigger towns or cities. But in the countryside it depends on how close your village are to the general intercity rail or highway network, if there are any good connections. And even there how close it is to walk or bike to the bus stop or train station from your house.
@@ClaudiaG.1979 Germany Ticket? Is that a go anywhere ticket?
@@jonathanwetherell3609 i launches in may and is valid for all of germany, you can travel from north to south with that ticket. but not all trains are included. Plus, i think its a yearly subscription but you can cancel it after a month. You also need a german bank account.
Yes, kinda like that. You can take the "basic" transport by bus lines and regional trains (not the fast express, but the regionals) which can sending you from north Germany (Denmark) to south (Swiss/Austria) with a bit extra time (but hey you want a trip, so who cares😅) and you can stop anywhere on the line. There was a similar ticket before, but that was for only the weekend so if you wanted to drive two days you paid more than the new ticket shall cost)
In Poznań (a city in Poland of over 600K) busses and trams come every ~2 minutes to a the city center bus / tram stop . On the city outskirts at worst every 20 minutes (like really low population neighborhoods), but usually its like every 10 minutes. Agglomeration bus lines come every 20 - 30 minutes (the Poznań agglomeration has a population of over 1 million people). On top of that the towns within the Poznań agglomeration have also their very own public transit.
Some time ago I heard from Americans the argument that you cant do that in the US because the cities are to big which is a really stupid argument, because as with everything the economy of scale kicks in. In other words. The bigger a city is the lower the cost per individual (citizen) bus / tram / metro ride will be.
Hi fellow Wielkopolanin 😉 I live in Dortmund, which is about the size of Poznañ, with 12 km to the centre . I can use S-bahn or Tram to get there. The only negative point in my city are the costs of the single tickets (almost 10€ for a family of 3, one way), it gets cheaper when buying a month-card.
But what really makes a difference is the european zoning: housing is here mixed with shopping iminieties, offices or things like hairdressers, restarants. I don't have to always drive by car to buy fresh food or have a coffee.
This type of planning is banned in American suburbs.
I too live in Poznań! And was going to make a similar comment. Local people complain (national pasttime) but I've never felt the need for a car.
Some years ago I was visiting a friend who didn't have a car in Houston. The bus system was.... not good. Too many stops (sometimes every 100 meters or so) and you had to look at both the number and end stop of buses to figure out if it would get you to your destination. And there were no schedules at the stops themselves so you might wait from 5 to 45 minutes for a bus. My friend said they need a specialist from Central-Eastern Europe to maximize the system.
You are right, here in Grenoble is the same, having a car is more of a burden than a benefit.
1 thing you didn't factored in : in Europe we have 250M parking spots for 300M cars, in the US they have 2B parking spots for 250M cars. Simple, parking spots use more surface than habitations in the US.
If no more need for a car, all that space can be used for usefull stuff, living areas, shops and whatnot ! Making the cities denser in the process, which increases the benefits from public transportation 😉
I guess, the main issue is not a sheer size, but a population density. Economy of scale is really kicking in when you use a high capacity vehicles. Economical viability of using big busses in American suburbs is questionable - they will drive around half empty all the time on a frequency that makes sense. Other option is a broad network of routs, operated with 10-20 seats buses bringing everyone to a local transit station, but this kind of operation will require a systematic work on multi-level well-coordinated transit system, that costs a fortune and takes years to create. I guess, this "right" concept is too hard to sell for a local government then a bunch of impressive intersections that are much more visual than long, painstaking, inconspicuous work on setting up and maintaining a complex multy-layered public transit system
I live in the village near Poznań. We have bus connection to Poznań every 30 minutes. If I need to go there I don't go by car, or just leave my car on the big parking near Ikea and take a tram (park & ride). It is really european standard.
Many people don't factor in the cost of their car loan, value depreciation, car insurance, repairs and parking to the cost of owning a car. Lack of public transport also means disabled and others who can't use a car are isolated, and restricted in where they can live or work.
... and the risk of car accidents as well.
In the US, there is no cost to parking.
Well not much.
@@stephenlee5929 So...
1. who pays for building the garage in ones house at home?
2. Who pays for building, running, maintaninging, repairing parking garages in the city?
3. who pays for builing and maintaining the parking places in the streets? 🙃
I guess you aren't paying a fee for parking, anyways the parking lot has to be built and maintained. So I think the costs are priced in to the goods and services you are buying.
@@sammyberger3867 There is also a huge cost you forgot which is what you lose NOT using that area for something else. And it can be significant.
I'm still amazed every time, how much north America just doesn't even considers walking and bicycles. I live in Europe and visited many countries, in and around any middle size or bigger city having a car is more a hinderance then an advantage. Public transport is a bit annoying sometimes sure, but a stop is always in max. 5 minutes of a walking distance and the vehicles arrive in 5-10 minutes max. Underground trains, busses, tram you name it, it's everywhere. So strange to see that this is not the norm for so many other people.
They don't consider it because they can't. Nigh impossible. I have seen videos of peopel trying to get places on foot, and the sidewalk just abruptly stops, they have to cross parking lots, walk on the side of the road etc. Just not optimal. And the distances are higher due to them forsaking population density lol.
They don’t realize a Chunnel runs between the UK and France, though N. California has BART and ferries. I like taking the ferries across to France for lunch. It’s not expensive compared to the cost of upkeep on fake hair, nails, and eyelashes.
I live in England. If you was to Google the bus map for my city. You will most would think it was the road map for the entire city. Simple because there is that many different bus routes in my city.
We have over 50 individual bus routes in my city 😉
I’ve just become a bus driver I thought learning to drive a 10 tonne, 38 foot long vehicle was hard but learning the routes is super stressful- if you are ever behind a bus going slightly up hill and get stressed the bus is going slow BELIEVE me the driver will have their foot hard down
The city where I live (Tampere, Finland) has a new tram system. It was first suggested in 1907 but it took until 2016 for the city council to make the final decision about it. There were always people who were convinced that it would be a bad idea, mainly because of the high cost. Then it took several years to build it and half of the city was an absolute mess during that time. The tram was finally taken into use in August 2021.
And, well.... it is wonderful. It currently has only two routes but they both go every 3 minutes. It's the most convenient public transportation that I've ever used. Yeah, it was expensive (330 million eur so far, the last I heard about it) but totally worth it. They are planning to extend it.
One thing that I have noticed is that I've seen quite a few people on a motorized wheelchair using the tram by themselves. Before, it has theoretically been possible for wheelchairs to go in the bus, but I haven't really seen them there often. Probably because it's just too difficult and there's not enough room for them. Buses are supposed to have room for two prams/strollers but there's quite often three of them crammed in there already, so probably people in wheelchairs don't even bother to try to get in a bus. But the new trams have a HUGE space reserved for all these things on wheels, so that there always seems to be room for more. Probably the tram system has given a whole new level of freedom to people who need a wheelchair.
Accessibility is another one of those things that you can understand and appreciate much better once you've lived in or visited a developed city with high quality public transport.
It took them over 200 years to make a decision? Your election days must stretch for months then, so everyone has ample time to ponder their choices
Driving more than 45 minutes constitutes "travel" in Belgium. you'd nearly take an overnight bag for that :D ( though admittedly it takes that long to get across the city by car due to congestion. ) My commute is 6 minutes.
That's because it's hell to drive on Belgium roads, I need a suspension check before I cross the border, but still love your country for my vacation especially the Ardennes
Does 45 mins drive in Belgium get you out of the country?
@@stephenlee5929 45 minutes may get you out of the city center of Brussels in rush hour, in order to join the queue of cars on the ring road. Belgium in rush hour is something to avoid if possible.
lol
This is one of the thingsI miss about Europe….public transportation. I would take the train to Glasgow or Edinburgh without issues. I could read, relax, and listen to music.
I couldn't cope living so far away from things! Shops, buses, trains, doctors, dentist, vet, beach, taxis, restaurants, leisure centre, parks, markets, cinema, hospital, pubs, clubs, all of those are no further than 5-15 minutes from me! (England) And all around me is farmland, countryside, rolling hills, woodland and historic buildings and places. I'd go mad stuck out in nowhere!
I've never owned a car, never needed to! They take so much money to upkeep, maintain, service, tax, insure and fill up. It's cheaper for me to hop in a taxi to my town centre and back, than own a car, drive it and pay to park it! Work out daily or weekly what all your car costs are, and I bet you'd be horrified! Bearing in mind some days you're not actually going anywhere but still paying.
I've had driving lessons but decided I preferred to have the cash in my pocket rather than throw it into a car. Public transport is there in all weathers, you don't have to panic if your car won't start then how will you get to work, someone else has to sort out paperwork, phone calls etc related to insurance or repairs, someone else is dealing with road rage and idiots who shouldn't be on the road in the first place.
Sounds like an expensive extra stress I don't need in my life!
I live in Berlin and I basically never have to look up when the next train comes. It will always come very soon. Also, we have a circle line that goes around the city permanently. Very helpful.
I'm also German and TBH the Deutsche Bahn is terrible...
@@ManuelSteiner Weird argument, public transport in the cities in Germany usually is not connected to DB? Even in Berlin most transport is operated by BVG (Busses, Trams, Ubahn) which is owned by the state of Berlin and only the Sbahn is operated by a sub company of DB.
But we Germans tend to fall into that mindset a lot, even though compared to other countries, the DB is harmless. We just remember the days when it was better, at least in our flawed memory :D Colleagues in the US once said to me, that they consider a train on time, if it comes within 30 minutes of the time on the time table. We on the other hand get stressed and annoyed if its 5 minutes late. There are issues, true. But it could be so much worse.
@@ThePixelSchubse we were in Berlin last week. We found it very easy to get around. Using bus, trains etc. The only thing that would of made it better would of been not having to buy tickets either paper or on an app. BVG app.
London transport you just used contactless. Bus, the tube, river boat etc. Tapping on and off. No tickets needed. After 3 rides it’s capped. So all travel after this is free. We enjoyed Berlin.
The other thing that ruins US cities is the extreme level of 'zoning' which means nobody has local shops and businesses they can walk to in a few mins every day.
Yep. Zoning system has destroyed that country. In Europe everybody do their shopping needs within walking distance usually.
Why one earth should I drive 30 km/miles when there are 6 million people in that distance with thousands of businesses?
Yes, it was shocking to learn that in a residential area in the USA, things I consider essential like small grocery shops, a bakery, a cafe or pub and a branch library are often forbidden.
This might surprise you a bit, but the part about frequency of service is something we Europeans had to learn as well. It's just we're further in this process than north America is.
I for example live in Germany near the city of Karlsruhe.
After the car became popular, many German railways became unpopular and the national railway operator of Germany reduced the frequency of service, which in turn meant that fewer people used the train, which meant that service was reduced further and so on. Many lines were on the verge of closure or were closed. In my region, the turning point came when the AVG, the streetcar operator of Karlsruhe, started to run on mainlines. They bought out many regional rail lines, electrified them and ran modern light rail vehicles every half an hour. This is what boosted ridership exponentially...
The reason why is because it takes too long to say "public transportation" that's why we shortened it to "public transport" in the UK 😆
It was the Americans who lengthened it.
And then in Austria (especially Vienna) we call it öffentliche Verkehrsmittel, but shorten it down to Öffis. 😂
I'm from Germany and living in a "big" city of 200.000 residents.
Tram comes every 5 minutes
Bus comes every 15 minutes
S-Bahn (city train) comes every 10minutes
And there's always busses who drive at night too
The whole problem with the system is the concept of having suburbs.
That is not a thing in for example Germany, we mostly have mixed zoning, residential zones are mixed with business zones, so naturally there was always a need for transit between several parts of the city and not just a city center.
Suburbs without any businesses don't really exist here other than classic villages.
But even with suburbs I just don't get why the suburbs don't have a connection to like a light rail line or a subway connection at a central suburb area point with busses connecting to it?
It seems like the suburbs were planned while completely ignoring city transportation concepts
I live in Tasmania and if you have any more then 6 cars in front of you at a set of lights , you are in a traffic jam. When I moved here 20 years ago I was pulled over by the police because apparently I broke the law over 10 time in 10 minutes. He told me I was driving too close to the car in front of me and didn’t indicate for enough time while changing lanes ect ect and asked me why I drove that way.I told him that I was from Sydney and he told me well you are in Tasmania now so slow the heck down.
the governments always want people to slow down, to be convenient little drones.
No they ask you to slow down while driving so you can better assess the traffic so you don't put yourself or others in needless danger.
@@Brakvash No, they want you to comply.
It's funny that she said a long walk is a 45 min walk...that's what I do to and from work everyday 😂
You being shocked by "5 minutes? You can just miss the bus and take the next one!" Seems funny, but in reality it isn't. Where i live, subways/busses/trams come every 3-4min, and we are so used to it that i plan to travel with exactly those Intervalls - when i miss one, i am still 3-4min late. Just like missing a hourly bus in the US, but on a smaller scale
I live right on the edge of a city in the UK. I can catch a bus every 5 minutes to the centre. There are muliple other buses in walking distance that go to nearby towns, villages, hospitals and industrial areas. Not as frequent but still available.
I live in the UK,I used to live in London now in Swindon and although I can drive,I use public transport all the time to get about
When I lived in London I never owned a car. Now I live in the sticks, I still don't.
The busses aren't great tbh. We get 1 an hour, but there's a train station in the next town, so it isn't too bad.
U DRIVE 1h 20m to work WTH >.> u lose nearly 3h per day dafuq
also a bus every 30m is the bare minimum we have that kinda stuff in shitty 1000 people villages 🤣 every 30m 6-18 and then some more inbetween
In 2001 USA had 5% of the world population, but USA spent 25% of all energy consumption. So in comparison an average American spent five times more energy than a man in the rest of the world.
Sure the US is big, but they could work on it, create more Jobs, better Streets and become more environmental friendly. And get better connected. Basic Stuff is necessary. Meanwhile in Europe..we talk about banning Plastic Straws...though the US is producing lots of Plastic and Air Pollution. What the ef?
Transit is so bad where I live in Ohio. Nearly 1 million people in the city Proper and 2.2 million in the metro area, yet we have not 1 single passenger rail service. Not commuter rail, not light rail, not a metro, and not even Amtrak runs through it. Car dependency is a big issue: 1/100 people in the US Will die from a car accident, or 50k people a year.
If the US only had the same rates of car accidents as a European nation such as the UK, we’d be saving at least 20k people a year from premature death. That money saved Just from 20k people a year not dying could literally build a Japan sized HSR network at US labor costs for the California HSR (which is absurdly high by global standards) every Single Year.
9:20 yeah, in Europe we don't check when the bus is going to come because there is always one coming lol
Definitely recommend Not Just Bikes for more on this topic of urban planning, roads and public transportation
As a German I don't drive at all. I don't even have a drivers license. I never needed to. Our busses go every ten minutes in out smallish town. Yes, when we do a big grocery shopping tour twice a month, we use our small car and sometimesfor holidays and festivals, when we have much luggage. But that's about it. Why would I drive, when I can just walk 2 min, get into the bus, play on my phone on the bus and be at my destination in 15-20 minutes without doing anything. Ok, maybe I need to walk another 1-2 min. Driving myself, and finding a parking space is way to stressful....
I always drive or walk, I will not take public transit, that would mean I would have to tolerate other individuals around me.
the problem is the huge difference between metropolitan areas and the flat country. We in Upper Franconia look forward to join the Nuremberg area because we will finally no longer have seperate tickets for Busses and Trains.
One problem why USA is not value Public transportation is, how it is designed. Like seperated areas for business, living and admistration. In europe thouse areas are all mixed and by ensuring proper traffic, they increase economic effiency. So In USA no one cares if you drive 1,5 hours to work and same time to back. In europe that means wasted time, time not used effienctly.
I read somewhere that the level of public transport infrastructure speaks about the city and the society. A really rich city is the one where also rich people choose the public transport over a car.
Public transport (if done well) makes commuting to work much faster and much much much cheaper than driving a car.
After seeing this I will never complain about our public transport again. Looks like heaven😂
I prefer a car to any form of public transit.
@@romanmir01 in congested cities public transport is much faster than a car. Of course, you need to have a functioning public transport.
@@AnickaSR you don't hear me, I don't want to be in public transit because I don't want to see, hear, smell, touch people
@@romanmir01 well, people do live in a society where interaction with others is sort of expected😅
@@AnickaSR yes, that is unfortunate.
In London..
The buses are every 6 to 12 minutes and the tubes are every 3 minutes..
I don't own a car ..none of my family own a car..We don't need one
The difference, again, is cultural. The USA is about the individual (esp. the Republicans) and in Europe (esp. the EU) it is about mutuality.
Public transport is not about a commercial enterprise but a public service. With planning and initial subsidy it can be run at a profit but that all requires political, long term, commitment.
BTW the roads that private vehicles run on, largely financed by taxes. That also is a political act, just a hidden subsidy.
I live in the UK and work in my city centre...
I have a bus every 20 minutes that runs along the end of my road... And another route every 15 minutes that's a quarter mile away (my local one forks off the other one)
A day ticket costs me £4. Less if I buy a week or month pass
If I want to drive I can, but I pay £7.95 per day to park near work!
Ye, I'm Australian, and we complain about our public transport all the time ... but we still use it.
Because, while they may not keep time as well as some places, at least they're there and they work.
The thumbnail picture shows a map from the USA and one with the European flag. The "European" map is from Toronto and I'm sure it's in North America 😅
Well, the US's lack of geographical knowledge is the stereotype.
All you have to do is buy futuristic busses, with flashy lights,the elon-approach.
People who love driving should be the first to push for better public transit, it removes a lot of trafic and will make their driving more enjoyable. Even if you love driving, I doubt you are having a good time in a trafic jam.
I always drive, last time I used public transit was around 2000. I want an excellent transit system paid for by the riders and I prefer emptier roads for myself.
There are zero busses where I live. None, at all, nada. If you don't have a car you can't get around.
No one wants to improve the public system, because more cars means more fuel consumption and more revenue for the oil companies. It's that simple.
But housing cost isn't just your mortgage or rent. It's also insurance (homeowners, renters), maintenance, for homeowners landscaping, furnishings, appliances. They all add up. And the cost of your car includes car payment, insurance, maintenance, gas or electricity, annual registration, vehicle inspection in some states. It's expensive to own and operate a car. I don't have one because I can't afford it on Social Security.
I'm 28, live in Zagreb, Croatia, and I still haven't done my driver's licence classes and exams. I don't need it. Cars and gas are expensive and Zagreb has buses and trams, and I recently bought a bike for hotter summer months. For vacations my bf either borrows his parents' car or my brother's car. And when we travel abroad all major European cities have good public transport too so we don't have to worry. As a person born in Zagreb and riding trams my whole life I honestly can't imagine living somewhere without reliable public transportation. I hope the US government invests in it.
this video made me realise how Americans live is very unsustainable, the cost of infrastructure in America must be huge for all those highways and parking lots and also everyones personal expenses to own a car, it also creates social inequality where the ones who do not drive cannot get to places . No wonder you have such huge amount of debt and i can only see it going bigger because to change your infrastructure means all the cities would need to be completely rebuilt
I chose where I live because it is 200mtrs from a Train Station, 100 mtrs from one bus route, 400 mtrs from another. and 1/2 km from a major road. Being 'old' I can travel free on buses during the day, as can several other groups. Currently even our useless Government is funding a cheaper fares option to encourage bus use. The other day I met a couple who had travelled from Ringwood to Swanage by bus at no fares cost , a 32 mile journey.
My two local buses join with another set of routes after a mile to give me access to local towns.
When the time comes for me to stop driving I will still have good contact with the out side world.
A problem with public transportation is that often frequency is overrated. Anything over once every hour is nice to have, but the more important parts are reliability and reach. In Germany many people won't take public transportation (apart from underground/tram systems in the big cities) to work/appointments, because of the delays caused by the privatisation of public transport.
bruh im 21 years old and i dont even need a car because public transport will get me everywhere
That was a very interesting video.
But now you should react to German public transportation, for example from Berlin or Hamburg.
Cause public transport is much more used in Germany than in the US.
I am living in Hamburg, Germany, for most of German cities it's common to have bus driving between 2-10 min, depending on the traffic time and area. Even on the country side you still have busses driving at least once in 2h from Morning to evening to connect you with the next bigger village, where you can find a train to the NEXT bigger city, where busses will drive more time again... so I don't see why it's so hard for you americans to develop a working bus traffic...
Public transportation is beneficial to work efficiency, public health, air pollution and the spent budget, why your politicians resist it is beyond me!
Money paid by car and fuel industry would be my guess......
That was a great video, Ryan. Coming from Chicago, while the transportation system needs to improve, I could get around via public transportation whether in city or suburb. I would have used it more if it was like we heard about in Canada. I traveled 110 miles round-trip each day from Waukegan to Chicago and back. I think the people have just given up hoping for something better, sadly. I don't think that the desire isn't there. Here, in Indianapolis, partly because I am in an Electric Wheelchair, I can't get anywhere. My only transportation is provided by Medicaid, and that is only for medical appointments and medications. I think that if people could know what we just learned about the Canadian system that we just learned about, a movement might just be doable, especially with Secretary Buttigieg over the Department of Transportation. Peace
It's kinda strange that Canada and Mexico tend to improve their public transit systems and housing but *not* 'Muricans
The network looks like it needs some bus lines running perpendicular to the trams. We have a similar system here, with the trams pretty much connecting the outskirts with the center, but tons of buses outside of that to interconnect the lines and reach further out.
Germany's green government just "invented" a nationwide public transportation ticket for €49 a month. Before the new ticket, every little town had their own operator and if you had to go across city lines you had to have two tickets. The new ticket allows you to use all public transportation across Germany except for the high speed trains. We will see next year if that expands the costumer base of public transportation, it will make everything cheaper and easier anyway. Till now, I had to by three tickets to visit my brother or my mother, who both life around 35 miles from here. One for my Home city, Aachen, on for the nationwide intercity operator and one for the hometown of my mother/brother. Just the one day, three tickets, would have cost at least 30 Dollar.
Where I live in NE England public transport is reasonable, if a little unreliable due to driver shortages.
A video made by americans about America. Yes, the typical EU content
1:25 "I drive an hour in twenty minuites to work"... epic US American comment 😮😮😮..and completely useless information..
can US Americans please learn to use distances correctly?...
But are Americans still gonna drive when gas costs $10 a gallon?
The price of gas in California last summer was as high as it was in the UK. Most people don't have the option to not drive though - there's no other feasible option.
They will, they'll just complain a lot and drive a little bit less.
Well in Finland capital Helsinki. the busses comes every ten minutes and connect actually Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo three big cities. Then there's a underground that also connects those three cities and those subways comes every 3 minutes from 6 am to 6 pm and then we also have so called suburb trains that comes also every ten minutes and we also have trams that comes every 5 minutes.
So where do I need a car living the biggest city of Finland?
Well, is there no one with a mixed need in bigger cities? How do you live or manage what I mention below?
I am living in a 74k city (so not too small) with public transport which is trash 30-60min for next bus coming from 6:30 to 20:00h. Yeah, the day ends at 20:00h here!!!!!!!! I am faster by foot or bike due to waiting times and often need transportation in times not covered.
Getting out of city without a car is trash as well. While hours and hours needed with public transport via 1 railway connection to a hub (waiting for transfer needed), my destination is reached in 10th of minutes by car.
I can't imagine not owning a car, as there are so so many occasions.
Way to work 5 days a week. 5km / 10min (always mentioning one way)
Business trips 2 times a year up to 700km / 7h 10min
Everyday needs (doctor, groceries, sports, (music) school) for me and family members. I don't want to count....
Shopping travels to bigger cities roughly one time a month and/or transportation needs with trailer (furniture e.g.). 50km / 45min
Flea market with trailer roughly 3 times a year to markets 30km around home / 30 min.
Visiting family in the near roughly once per week. 20km / 20min (countryside without any frequent public transportation available)
Other family roughly 4 times a year 200km / 2h 10min (highway, to countryside location without railway connection, additional bus trip needed)
Short trips and vacations to the sea, mountains, amusement park, concerts etc. roughly 5 times a year up to 250km / 2h 40min
Way to work compared (again one way):
car 10 min, bus 36min, foot 50 min, bike 20 min
business trip compared:
car 7h 10, train 9h, flight 4h 20min (50min by car to airport, 1h check-in time, flight 1h 10, 30min check-out, 50min to destination by car)
shopping / transport trip:
car / trailer 50min, 1h 50min (with renting a transporter)
flea market:
I wouldn't do this if I had to rent a transporter
visiting family:
car 20min / bike 55min (I wouldn't do in the winter - dark and no winter service on streets)
other family:
car 2h 10min, no time to wonder!!!! according to plan 10h 15min with train/bus combo, bike fans do it in 9h
other trips:
I don't want to check the plans but every other method is way slower than car.
Well, time is money as well right?
I lived in London for 5 years and never needed a car, as public transport was extremely effective. Bus or underground trains came in every 3-5min. I moved to Nottingham and I can still go everywhere by bus or tram. My work is 6min driving away. If I'm in rush or the weather is too bad I take my car. Otherwise I just take the tram. If the weather is nice I just walk and never felt walking awkward. I lived in Hungary before and the same apply there too. If people want to save money they just giving up their car and they are just fine.
I don't know why, but I thought that this video would compare transit in US with transit in Europe, but I was wrong. Here in Madrid we got 13 subway lines with 310 stations, but also 10,884 bus stops in 235 lines with 2095 buses circulating at any moment within the city limits. And I'm *NOT* counting the buses that enter surrounding municipalities!
Yes in Tallinn get free ride on public transport if You are Tallinn citizen , but other pay only 33 % because taxes cover / dotatsion of 67 % . = month card of Tallinn buses 45 euro ( 48.15 usd ) .
Inner city Chicago, no thanks! Cars are a huge expense! It's impossible to find parking in New York, you either have a car service or get trains! Seven miles is nothing, if it's safe to walk or cycle! Parking costs and security!? Sydney Centre has no car access and minimal parking, but there are trains, light rail or buses every 5-10 minutes, and ferries 10 minutes away, trains accept bicycles too! Near me in North Sydney there are trains to anywhere in Sydney and you can easily change trains to other states and country areas at Central Station! My closest bus stop has buses to 5 different destinations, and there's a new fast rail system too - I don't need a car, transport is cheap, safe, clean, fast, friendly! 🤗 You can get updates on where your bus is on Google, and exact arrival time, any delays! We have pension discounts, all day or weekly tickets and in peak times free school buses in every area too! Buses run all night for shift workers and party goers! America needs much more than an infrastructure shakeup! 🤔 Move to Australia, earn well, live well, be safe! 😁👍
Gaz is cheaper? Everyone known It matter of time before american car culture end.
As oil reserve decrease oil price will increase, what the american will do then when gaz will cost 10%, 20%, 50% more?
Unpopular opinion, if you raise the price of fuel, you can make driving incredibly inconvenient and make public transit seem or walking, or biking seem like a much more viable option. Not only Bly is that bette for the environment, but it's also better for health reasons and a way of curbing obesity.
Now naturally, if you tried to raise the price of gas you'd start a civil war... but hey, last time you did that you abolished slavery, maybe it's worth a try 🤷♂️
In all seriousness, I understand that would create a raw deal for Americans that live rurally so I would create a fuel tax exemption for people who live in rural communities or people who live in areas where public transport is completely inaccessible... but that also sounds like a social service and I know how much Americans are against anything that might smell like socialism 🤷♂️
Woww, how many people live in that City?
Hete a sub 500 k pop city has thousands of bus stops, it has trams and trollies and the transport goes all around too not only to center.
Yes a EU🇪🇺 country (Estonia🇪🇪)
I Live in cologne and I never check when my next bus or subway leaves, I just go to the station. I’ll have to wait like 2-8 minutes at most (unless it’s a Sunday). Now the DB on the other hand… that’s my Nemesis
Lol and I thought 10-15 minutes was annoying. Truly privileged 😂
Hi Ryan. I like your video topics and commentary. Hate the backdrop. The baby's room looks nice, nothing wrong with it. Just not a cool place to record your content.
I live in Dublin, Ireland and public transport is pretty poor here - compared to Poland where I'm from. Like in America, it's hard to get from suburb to suburb without going to city centre first. Now I work from home but before I used to drive to work (45 minutes to 1 hour one way), because going by public transport would take 2 hours!
I think you should move to Europe. Actually move. Choose your country. Gas may be cheaper, but most of us have free health care, good public transport and so forth. Also Europeans are much less noisy than Americans.
I'm Thai. 10 years ago I attended a seminar and stayed at a hotel in suburb Denver. The weather was nice. So I decided to walk to the restaurant, couple miles from the hotel. The experience was horrific. 🤐After a few 100 yards from the hotel, the sidewalk end. I had to walk on the glass or on the road pavement while fast cars and trucks passing by. Had to cross a few 8 lanes intersections with no cross walk sign. Made it safely to the restaurant in one piece. Uber back to the hotel though.
Public transport in the Us when available is also very dirty and unsafe. It should be the easiest and most comfortable way of transport or else people will not use it.
It’s absolutely insane that people think driving 5min to get somewhere is acceptable in any way.
Wow seeing you being surprised about a bus coming every few minutes really shows how bad American transport is. Its totally normal in Europe and Asia
In Madrid subway (Metro) many times you see a train arriving and you think I don't wanna walk faster I will take the next, that probably arrives 1 or 2 minutes later
I get a feeling that you missed a bit of the point in the video. Americans don't want to get rid of their cars, news flash, people in Europe do not want to get rid of their cars either, but there is a big difference. In Europe they do not always need their cars to get were they want to, so they use the public transport, then at the weekend they may want to go somewhere, where it can be diffcult to get to like a holiday home in the country, to visit family and carry stuff with them and so on.
During the working week they'll used public transport, and leave the car at home, thereby saving money on fuel, wear and tear on the car, also less stress from not having to sit in long traffic que's.
In the US you have been told over the last 50 years or more that you need a car by lobbyists, who also give money to politicians, to repeat the same thing and make sure good public transport does not happen.
Americans and Canadians come over to Europe and one of the 1st things they do is buy a car, then if they live there for a few years find that they hardly use it, and some end up selling their cars, as they find it an extra expense they do need.
So if a city in the US put in a good public transport system, you'd find people will start to use it, and leave the cars at home. It's not a choice of one or the other, it's giving you choice to have both and use what you want, when you want to. So you can have your big car, but you do not have to use it.
I'm Georgian (eastern Europe) and here bus arrives every 4-7 minutes, depends on route. Subway train arrives in 4 minutes.
Why was there a EU flag in the intro of that video? They compared the US with Canada... not with Europe.
ROUTE is pronounced ROOT in the UK.
If you are spending MORE on food than your house .....how expensive is your food !!??
I live in Tokyo, the only reason you'd want a car is either you have special needs person in the family or you got kids that do sports that need them to carry a lot of gear to middle of nowhere places and its just easy to carry it. That or you want it for vanity.
That map design came from Harry Beck for the London Underground in 1933 and is used in many places around the world, Australia included. It's so easy to read.
I am from the German City of Hambourg and we have about 900+ Bus lines, 6 Fast Train Lines (S-Bahn ), wich goes every 10 minutes and 4 underground lines (U-Bahn) wich goes every 5 minutes. Seeing the US Transit-System (in German = ÖPNV) is kinda sad to me. Even more are buildt right now.
As a french, if the bus pass only every 30 min in town, i'm getting mad. it's not enough. May be from the country side.... or late at midnight.
Well, as the here very well known Austrian university professor for public sience Hermann Knoflacher said many decades ago: "Wer Straßen sät, wird Verkehr ernten" which means: "If you sow roads, you will reap car traffic"
BUT: this holds true also the other way round: if you sow bike lanes, footpaths, public transport, you will reap people who use them.
So I'm confident, that people (not all, of course) do not have to be persueded, they WILL use these other options, if they are built.
The cost for an annual pass for all public transport in Vienna is € 365 per year/€ 1 per day (Underground, Busses, tram, city trains... everything).
in europe, if you're closer to the city center, you'll have buses coming by every 5 minutes. they don't all go to the same place, but if you're travelling withing the city center, most of those buses will take you where you need. when you go towards more the outskirts, rural and industrial towns is when there's less buses. towns that are on the outskirts but still heavily populated will likely have a bus that goes by every 30 minutes, the more rural, smaller towns are the ones that usually only have a bus drive by every hour
I wonder if americans ever play cities skylines and wonder why all the people are whining that the schools and hospitals are too far.
just look at how the public reacted when for once there was someone trying to fix usas problems and obama care a system that would most of the people that where against it help. it's not about what the best but what is the least change possible thats just how humans work
@Ryan Wuzer Imagine Italy of France, where you have trains going 300 km/h as a regular speed. You can commute between Rome and Napoli (I used it as tourist) in 1-1.5 hours
I'm from England and the bus runs every 10 minutes during the day. If you are retired you get a bus pass to ride free after 9.30 am why wouldn't you use the bus?
Even if many Americans don't see the problem, and even gas is cheap (for now) in USA, there's still reasons to change that huge car-dependence problem:
- An average US citizen emits 3 times more C02 than the average citizen in my country, and I'm from the developed world. There's a reason USA pollutes so much, on such a gigantic scale, but it's possible to do better.
- It contributes to the obesity problem in USA, which is very costly for the country.
The movie Roger Rabbit's back story is how GM and a tire company (don't remember if it was Good Year or someone else) bought the street cars system in LA and shut it down. They were taken to anti-trust court and fined just $1. The American way of separating you from your money at it's best.
I had to laught when you were shocked with 5 min frequency for bus. 😂 That frequency and even quicker in specific time of day is standard for heavily used lines here where I live.
In America, cars require twice as much space than people. Guess what is more valuable to your society.
I used public transport solely in Boston, it’s pretty good
I am a huge booster for public transportation but if you are car person it will take A LOT for you to sell your car, I do not see the point of owning a car AND taking public transportation (forget that - if you are taking a train or a bus that is not crowded, the reduction in stress dealing with traffic is a PLUS). It will take designing a really great system and marketing the heck out of it to get non-public transport people to public transport.
It just means you are renting your place from a bank.
Ryan, compare the US systems to those in Europe, shockingly different!
Asian public transport is also superior in comparison to the 'Murican one