71–80 of 128 posts
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What's also amazing is how well everything is working. They're are on time and stop at the exact right spot: the doors do open precisely where they're meant to.
To be honest I’m more surprised that this isn’t just how things are everywhere.
If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
Sometimes I wonder if society will figure out a way to stagger business hours and holidays... somehow... to decongest rush hour. Something like X areacode business hours have to +/- 1 hour every other month.
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> Nearly all metros with capacity issues have old, slow sections that limit the entire network (NYC looking at you) or have paused on expanding the network for generations (NYC looking at you again, 2nd ave subway notwithstanding). You're posting this on an article about a line that runs at 158% occupancy during peak times, in a city that certainly hasn't shirked on modernisation or expansion. If you expand far enoug…
Not to mention Yamanote line also shares the same route with many other train lines that serve as extra capacity and express service along segments of the route (Shonan Shinjuku Line, Saikyo Line, Keihin Tohoku Line, etc), as well as multiple other alternate lines that more or less duplicate segments of Yamanote Line (Shibuya-Ikebukuro is also served by Fukutoshin Line with local and express service on a parallel rou…
I don't think that's a direct effect. Within most of Tokyo, using a car just isn't a viable option for many trips for most people. Lots of people don't own a car to begin with (a parking space at your home is usually very expensive, in addition to the costs of the car itself). And if you try to use it to go somewhere, where are you going to park it? Some big stores and malls of course have parking garages, but most other places don't, or there's paid parking that's expensive. And if you're going to work on a typical day, there's probably no place to park there: companies don't provide parking for employees, they give you a pass for the transit system to get to work.
I think, overall, the reason car traffic is pretty minimal in Tokyo is because using a car just isn't very convenient most of the time, so people don't.
If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
>Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. Sometimes I wonder if society will figure out a way to stagger business hours and holidays... somehow... to decongest rush hour. Something like X areacode business hours have to +/- 1 hour every other month.
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It's great to use as a tourist. Very easy to get where you want and top notch frequency. One thing I thought was interesting is that transit advocates in the California I was visiting from push for free transit and transit sucks balls here while Japan generally was fee-paid transit and their transit ruled. I frequently travel to Hong Kong and I moved to California from London and so I looked them up and they hadn't t…
Another big difference between transit in Tokyo versus transit in California: in Tokyo many of the lines are owned and operated by private companies. JR East used to be part of Japan National Railways, but the Japanese government privatized JNR in 1987, and it was split into several regional companies. There are other private companies that operate commuter rail lines, such as Tokyu (which played a major role in the…
If you've ever stayed in the heart of Tokyo you know the JR Yamanote line well. What a feat for Japan to have it. I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Have more traffic? Just add more trains, no extra rails needed. Yamanote line rush hour showed me how effective that is AND how you might need more rail eventually. Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and t…
> I always thought trains (light rail, high speed, what ever) were so much better than cars. Do you honestly think that standing in a crowd with other people's smell all over you is better than being in your personal space, with music and AC turned to your taste, alone, sitting in a comfortable place that you adjusted for yourself? You must be the kind of person who thinks bland rice and unseasoned chicken breasts ar…
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>Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. Sometimes I wonder if society will figure out a way to stagger business hours and holidays... somehow... to decongest rush hour. Something like X areacode business hours have to +/- 1 hour every other month.
Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.
Certainly that percentage can be increased, but not all jobs can be worked remotely. It will help congestion but won't eliminate it.
Also, fun fact, not all traffic during rush hour is from commuting to work.
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>Rush hour had a train there every ~2 minutes and they were still packed. Sometimes I wonder if society will figure out a way to stagger business hours and holidays... somehow... to decongest rush hour. Something like X areacode business hours have to +/- 1 hour every other month.
Or just let people work from home if they can? Society seems to be dead set on certain ceremonies that aren’t technically needed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another big difference between transit in Tokyo versus transit in California: in Tokyo many of the lines are owned and operated by private companies. JR East used to be part of Japan National Railways, but the Japanese government privatized JNR in 1987, and it was split into several regional companies. There are other private companies that operate commuter rail lines, such as Tokyu (which played a major role in the…
Is that why the name changed to simply Hands. Makes sense but I hadn't realized the company was sold. I haven't noticed it affect the stores in any way yet.
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> Japanese highways are heavily tolled and parking in choice areas is expensive. In the US parking is mandated at such high levels that it is given away for free; in Japan parking is entirely market provided and you cannot buy a car without proof of a reserved space which you must purchase this is because of the efficacy of public transport working for most of the populous, getting a car isn't the worst thing in the…
eh, this is the cart before the horse. the US had public frequent transit systems at the turn of the century. the problem was they couldn't compete with brand new free Interstates. It's hard to compete with free.
In an alternate universe, Los Angeles’ once-extensive streetcar system, which I believe was operated by private companies (though I could be wrong), could’ve been upgraded to become an extensive train and subway system. I believe the company that built the streetcar connecting Los Angeles with Pasadena also developed real estate along the route to encourage the use of the streetcar. This is exactly Tokyu’s business model; Tokyu played a major role in the development of “garden suburbs” influenced by the garden city movement of the early 1900s: first with the Den-en-Chofu neighborhood of Tokyo in the 1920s (which is served by the Tokyu Toyoko Line), and then with the development of Tama Den-en-Toshi (Tama Garden Cities) in once-rural parts of Kawasaki and Yokohama beginning in the 1960s. Of course, a crucial difference between the original garden city concept versus Tokyu’s implementation of it is that Tokyu’s garden suburbs are generally not job centers; while there are plenty of service jobs there, the majority of good-paying professional jobs are located in the city center (such as near Shibuya Station, which conveniently is heavily influenced by Tokyu), hence contributing to Tokyo’s legendary train congestion.