Compare it to Lisbon (where I live): some five or six different systems to serve less than 2 million people. Disheveled, impossible to coordinate. Dense coverage in the city centre and sparse where people actually live, so masses of cars go into the centre every day. Gridlock and pollution everywhere. And the systems we have are considered good!
I'll gladly join the chorus calling Tokyo the future. Can't come soon enough.
A classmate of mine who visited Amsterdam in the 80's described his experience like this: People seemed to hang out in different neighborhoods based on what "type" they appeared to be. The police might spot you being "out of place" and guide you back to where you were "supposed" to be. Essentially, they would do a friendly "deportation" of you to the right neighborhood.
I think all cities have something like this going on, to one extent or another: subdivision into different sub-cities.
The only thing the US should copy Japan on is long distance high-speed rail. The rest can be taken care of by electric buses + a lot of dedicated bus lanes, modest light rail investment and NY fixing its subway. The US doesn't actually need a radical makeover. A large expansion of dedicated bus lanes would fix 3/4 of the problem in nearly all US cities and would be very cost effective. Autonomous electric buses can provide a high volume solution that matches with the modest population size of most US cities.
Within 15-20 years the US is going to reach zero population growth (and the growth rate will be close to zero for much of that time). Shortly thereafter the US population will begin falling permanently. It doesn't need to explode its budgets building unnecessary transportation systems based on copying one of the world's most dense cities for absolutely no good reason.
Previously on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16602151
We can't get our mayor de Blasio to commit to prevent people from stopping on the bus lane in the city (NYC). For example, in Jamaica, I would guess there is a bus every two minutes each way (peak) at Sutphin Blvd Hillside Avenue intersection. It isn't a particularly busy intersection, just an example.
Not just that there are cars parked in the bus lane, there are trucks unloading goods for the shops there, double parked.
The state of NJ says it is unlawful to idle your car for over three minutes. I've never seen anyone follow this rule. We might as well get rid of laws without enforcement. Who are we kidding?
Making a bus lane without enforcement is just wasting money to paint a lane. How do we enforce it? The only way I see viable is to allow bus drivers to write tickets to anyone blocking them (even for thirty seconds) in a bus lane (buses should definitely be equipped with multiple dash cams) and give the bus drivers the ticket money.
The US should be trying to copy Japan and make an effort to benefit everyone, instead of creating expensive transportation alternatives that only very few will be able to take advantage of and won't solve any real problems except for those people. (I know, US <> Boeing)