Right, that’s all fair, but my understanding is that there’s also excellent subway in all large cities, and great bus service. Also, my impression was that China used similar city planning to USSR with microdistricts where you have necessities near by and don’t need to drive to do common things like buying groceries. Is that still the case in your experience?
Yes the subways are pretty good. The busses are less good. South Korea is, in my experience, the gold standard for public transport, but China’s putting a lot of money into these things too.
The microdistricts thing is exactly what they do. Essentials are walking distance from residential blocks. In older neighborhoods it’s great. In newer districts it’s not always conveniently done. Often those things get put into a western-style mall that becomes a magnet for car traffic. Richer, newer neighborhoods will be much more car-centric than poorer ones, and subway stations are inconveniently spaced out. younger people ride sharebikes to these inconvenient locations. Many of these subway stations have nothing useful nearby.
The result is that people must pay a huge premium for housing close to a subway station. I was surprised to see hordes of people walking a mile to a subway station that I lived next to in outer Shanghai (Tangzhen station). And across the street, close to the subway station, there were extremely rich people who never used public transport.
As often happens in China, things are built and established without much thought for the end users’ experience
Definitely less ideal than it could be, and shows the problems that inequality creates where rich people end up hogging housing near subways while also using cars. Still, definitely much better than most places in North America.
I don’t know if it’s better in Europe… Maybe some places
South Korea is definitely the best I’ve seen. Really incredible interconnected networks of bus and rail. In Seoul you need not walk more than a hundred meters to get on the bus and then you’re in the network and can transfer to subways at a discount
Right, that’s all fair, but my understanding is that there’s also excellent subway in all large cities, and great bus service. Also, my impression was that China used similar city planning to USSR with microdistricts where you have necessities near by and don’t need to drive to do common things like buying groceries. Is that still the case in your experience?
Yes the subways are pretty good. The busses are less good. South Korea is, in my experience, the gold standard for public transport, but China’s putting a lot of money into these things too.
The microdistricts thing is exactly what they do. Essentials are walking distance from residential blocks. In older neighborhoods it’s great. In newer districts it’s not always conveniently done. Often those things get put into a western-style mall that becomes a magnet for car traffic. Richer, newer neighborhoods will be much more car-centric than poorer ones, and subway stations are inconveniently spaced out. younger people ride sharebikes to these inconvenient locations. Many of these subway stations have nothing useful nearby.
The result is that people must pay a huge premium for housing close to a subway station. I was surprised to see hordes of people walking a mile to a subway station that I lived next to in outer Shanghai (Tangzhen station). And across the street, close to the subway station, there were extremely rich people who never used public transport.
As often happens in China, things are built and established without much thought for the end users’ experience
Definitely less ideal than it could be, and shows the problems that inequality creates where rich people end up hogging housing near subways while also using cars. Still, definitely much better than most places in North America.
That’s a low bar!
Sure, transit in Europe is generally a lot better. I definitely agree that it would be better if China was copying that instead of the car culture.
I don’t know if it’s better in Europe… Maybe some places
South Korea is definitely the best I’ve seen. Really incredible interconnected networks of bus and rail. In Seoul you need not walk more than a hundred meters to get on the bus and then you’re in the network and can transfer to subways at a discount