Current mood: irrationally angry at how cheap, clean and convenient the subway systems in major Chinese metro areas are.
For example:
The Guangzhou Metro is newer than the LA metro system (it began service in 1997 versus 1993 in Los Angeles).
However, in that time, they have built more than four times as many miles of track, and it’s entirely underground - compared to the significant amount of at-grade rail in the LA system that forces the trains to wait at traffic signals.
The trains are cleaner, way more frequent (even the minor lines have trains spaced less than 10 minutes apart, with the main arteries, having trains as in frequently as FOUR MINUTES apart) and hilariously cheap: tapping your card to enter the station cost about 27 US cents, versus $1.75 on LA metro.
Now the price I’m less angry about because obviously LA has a much higher cost of living, and it absolutely shreds when it is compared to private taxi services like Uber.
But it’s really really frustrating to see how US public service seems to consistently run into mountains of red tape when private companies get to do things like effectively run experiments on the public (see: Waymo) without a problem.
China has significant issues of its own that cannot be discounted, but by golly, they can build good infrastructure. The United States needs to wake up.
