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Why Japan has such good railways

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Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#451

Post by pests »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #243
vantassell wrote: post #174

> Japan is one of the only countries to have privatized parking. In Europe and North America, vast quantities of parking space is socialized: municipalities own the streets and allow people to park on them at low or zero cost. Initially with the intention of encouraging the provision of more parking spaces, Japan made it illegal to park on public roads or pavements without special permission. Before someone buys a ca…

Street parking makes suburbs worse, too. Almost everybody in my neighborhood has their garages piled to the ceiling with junk and parks in the street, which makes it a pain to weave through even for someone driving a compact crossover… I can’t imagine what kind of hell it is for trash and delivery drivers having to squeeze huge trucks and vans through without swiping peoples’ cars.

In my area street parking is banned on collection day until 5pm. This is also when they do street cleaning. Somehow everyone finds room for all their cars on this day. Otherwise its similar to how you describe.

Guilty of garage as a storage shed, but its also crazy to me people don't store their second most expensive asset inside their garage.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#452

Post by sva_ »

thomasahle wrote: post #404
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where legislation can come in - when I bought my house, one provision was that I can't change the front to a garden, it has to remain usable as a parking space for a car. Even if I don't have a car. There's limited extra / visitor parking available. Of course, a lot of people have two cars so it's kinda moot but still.

This is crazy car-centric legislation. Now, instead of letting car owners pay for the public space they use (street parking), you are forcing anyone without a car to waste their own private space, in case somebody wants to park there.

I can't imagine that you have to let someone park on your private property anywhere.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#453

Post by reddalo »

gonzalohm wrote: post #350
ciupicri wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Romania. Even its capital and the largest city - Bucharest - is still pretty cheap, sometimes even free like in this example on Google Street View https://maps.app.goo.gl/r6TFFtHbj2SELTqY9 If you're willing to take the risk which is pretty low, you can even park it on the sidewalk like here https://maps.app.goo.gl/y6DNVBdR2KvJsA917 But times are changing. Lanes and sidewalks, sometimes even green spaces, are being co…

That's probably an exception. Most cities I know in Europe have crazy expensive parking and usually forbid cars from entering the city center. I would say EU cities are really hostile to cars

In Italy parking is free for residents. And street parking in the city centre is usually cheap (2 or 3 euros per hour).

Car culture in Italy is still too strong; but luckily many municipalities are working to decrease parking spots and build more cycle lanes.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#454

Post by rayiner »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #443
wallst07 wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% This is true. The only people I hear clamoring for trains in non urban areas are younger online folks (mostly living in urban areas). I rarely hear anyone ask for it in suburbia.

Frankly, if you've never lived in a place with clean, reliable, fast trains, you probably would be disillusioned and would never go to the train life. Or if your public infrastructure is deemed "for poor people". Back to my original point, it's a cultural problem.

I go to Tokyo sometimes multiple times a year. It’s not like I don’t know about reliable trains.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#455

Post by codethief »

> In 1982, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone started to privatize the railways. Unlike other countries, Japan simply returned to the traditional private railway model of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: tracks, trains, stations, and yards were owned by vertically integrated regional conglomerates. There are substantial advantages to vertical integration. Railways are a closed system that has to be planned as a single unit. […]

This is a very interesting point, especially in light of another article discussed here a couple days ago[0] about why Switzerland has 25 Gbit/s internet and why the US and Germany don't. One of the main points of the article was that the fiber optics infrastructure is (or should be treated as) a natural monopoly:

> The rational solution is to build the infrastructure once, as a shared, neutral asset, and let different companies compete to provide the service over that infrastructure. That’s how water works. That’s how electricity works in most places. And in Switzerland, that’s how fiber optic internet works.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47652400

EDIT: Turns out the Japanese railway infrastructure is not truly owned by the railway companies but instead leased from a government-owned institution, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773556 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766873

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#456

Post by graemep »

ad133 wrote: post #391
wkrsz wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can such policies be implemented individually by cities?

Not sure about the legal frameworks in the US but that’s exactly how it works in most places in the UK. Cities have restrictions for on-street parking (metered, permitted, illegal) whereas the towns and villages don’t (unless they also bring in bylaws to help with congestion).

Also restrictions such as residents only parking in both cities and towns.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#457

Post by infecto »

nottorp wrote: post #382
infecto wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder how much the pressure filled culture of not standing out has something to do with this. My impression is Japanese are under a lot more pressure to not abuse the permissiveness of the zoning laws.

If a law allows a store up to a certain size, and someone builds a store of that size, has the law been abused?

While size does matter in practical terms when we think of zoning it’s really about noise, smells, pollution etc. So when I say abuse I thinking because of cultural norms and pressure of not standing out there is greater incentive to not disturb others. The argument and question on my end is does this zoning work because folks are pressured to also not stand out. They try to not disturb others.

You will see countless threads on Reddit about bad neighbors in the US. Folks playing loud music, causing disturbances at all hours and will not stop. This applies to zoning as well. If the law allows it, people will do it so there is much more consideration in the US. I don’t know if it’s the right solution but certainly different cultures play a huge role in this.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#458

Post by zhdc1 »

wallst07 wrote: post #423
zozbot234 wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People do not "prefer to live in dense urban environments" by urbanist standards. Nobody wants to live there, it's too crowded and there's too much demand for housing! Oh wait, that makes no sense.

YES it does, JOBS! You are required to live there, its not a choice.

It's a very US-centric perspective to assume that density = cities.

Almost every town in the US, at one point, was dense enough to support a vibrant main street. Many (most?) of them even had tram lines and other forms of public transportation.

It's not an either or proposition. You can have cost-effective infrastructure through relative density without having to deal with all of the trappings - good and bad - that come from a city.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#459

Post by infecto »

llbeansandrice wrote: post #362
infecto wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder how much the pressure filled culture of not standing out has something to do with this. My impression is Japanese are under a lot more pressure to not abuse the permissiveness of the zoning laws.

What do you mean by “abuse”?

The other responder called it out well but to add. Abuse would be anything that disturbs others and out of the norm. Smells, pollution, noise etc. Japanese culture is much more considerate than a lot of western culture because of the social pressure to not standout.

I would imagine this plays a large role in this.

Re: Why Japan has such good railways

#460

Post by jameshart »

sva_ wrote: post #452
thomasahle wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is crazy car-centric legislation. Now, instead of letting car owners pay for the public space they use (street parking), you are forcing anyone without a car to waste their own private space, in case somebody wants to park there.

I can't imagine that you have to let someone park on your private property anywhere.

No, that is not the point.

The subtle difference is between American parking minimums imposed on property owners - “you must reserve space on your private property for this many cars whether you own them or not” vs Japanese parking requirements imposed on car owners - “you must reserve space on some private property for your car if you want to own it”

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