Trains in Japan are generally really great if it exist (not enough trains except big city). Buses aren't generally great, often delays due to traffic. Anyway, most Japanese people outside big city have a car.
Have you been to Japan? It often seems like people who have never been only have this ideal in their minds that everyone in Japan travels by bullet train or local commuter trains.
There are many bus routes, and many people who still own and drive their own cars even in larger cities like Tokyo or Osaka.
I don’t know much about the rate of car ownership in Japan. But I do know that public transit in Japan is insanely good and the cities are definitely walkable and all of it is quite safe. Trains are always on time. You can see small children riding them on their own. You can get almost anywhere you want to go using them. It’s actually phenomenal and it makes me angry to come back to the states after being there for any period of time because I suddenly need to drive again. (That said groceries would be more problematic if living there and I’m sure there are places you need to get to via car if living there, but most of the time a train has been fine for me as a visitor or when I was living on a military base. Only needed a car to get to the gate to leave and then walk to the train station)
Looking at this map makes me want to move to Tokyo. Sure, the trains stopping at night makes nightlife and catching a morning flight annoying, but train culture* of just making plans to meet at a train station with a friend is so much better than the car dependent place I live.
*It's not unique to Tokyo, but I've spent extended periods of time in cities with trains and this is what we often did. Tokyo just has lots of train lines.
Come visit Tokyo. Most of the people I know do not own a car. The train is the most popular form of commute. I either walk to my destination, or walk to the nearest train station to get there. It certainly does not have the same garbage system as described in the article, though :)
Japan, the golden child of public transportation, serves suburban areas as well as urban cores. I am not convinced it's altogether an issue of population density. It seems more a cultural issue. In America, public transportation is seen as being for people who can't afford a car. In Japan, it's just part of how you get places.
Of course, you can't have successful train operations in low density areas. Hokkaido, Shikoku, and the extreme west of japan is doomed in that regard. I don't even know how you could expect things to turn differently. But in Tokyo, and Kansai, the private train companies are doing very well.
1) trains go basically everywhere frequently in Japan, it’s very much a functioning rail network, they exist and kick ass.
2) a train doesn’t need to replace 100% of personal car trips to be useful. I’m sure you’re not transporting dishwashers or taking trips after 11 pm every day. Covering 90% of use cases is sufficient, and the other 10% can be handled by either renting a car or taking an Uber.
3) we can and should make busses faster than cars during times of congestion by giving them their own lanes.
Do you live in Hokkaido? Or maybe on a really local branch? I live in Tokyo, take around four trains a day on many different lines and that is just not the case here.
>Anywhere inside the Yamanote line, there are generally no express lines; all the Tokyo Metro lines stop at every station.
That makes sense, because it's the ring line surrounding and regular lines serving historically dense portions of Tokyo. Express trains to what count as suburbs in Japan are efficient. The point is to keep commutes less than an hour each way (which is more tolerable than the ~30 min in America since you're not driving).
>but it's almost impossible to do as long as car culture is so important and parking requirements exist.
There's been movement on that front. But, again, the problem isn't the rules themselves, but the benefit people get from them being so widespread (essentially forcing other people to subsidize their lifestyle). The true culprit is that so many Americans profit from impoverishment (of their neighbors and municipalities).
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