City in the world with the best transport SYS.

[DaDvD]

@Bsrt: I totally agree with you, but let me make you some corrections:
Madrid's population is 3,205,334 inhabitants while Madrid's metropolitan area population goes up to 5,843,041 inhabitants.
Also the first metro line was opened in 1919 (Line 1 from Sol to Cuatro Caminos)

[Bsrt]

Yes, i know, the numbers i wrote were gone :S...
The real difference is 1'5 million, because London is 7'2 million...

[Dallas star]

Ya I was also wondering about that Bsrt

[Bitxofo]

I agree in almost everything about Madrid, except the traffic which is horrible, worse than in London or Paris!

[Bsrt]

I'm not so sure that traffic is worse in Madrid than in London, i was in london last week and the one before and everything was horrible, every time i go i like more the city itself but traffic jams in Regent, Picadilly or Oxford stret are really horrible, and they are not so broad streets, so that make them even more horrible for pedestrians. In the case of Paris i can't talk because i don't know the city as Madrid or London...

[_00_deathscar]

Regarding the Singapore bus route map things, Hong Kong doesn't have one of those maps either...but we run fine without them...?

[Minato ku]

The traffic is worse in Paris than in London. ( I don't know Madrid )
Parisian are really bad driver.

Place de la Concorde champ Elysee ,Porte d'Orleans ,Boulevard St Michel , Rue de Rivoli, place de l'Opera , Boulevard Haussmann ... are good exemples and the traffic is terrible in suburbs to.

In Paris the traffic is heavy in minight too.

[SE9]

^
I've only been to Paris a couple of times, but I didn't know congestion was that bad. I've obviously seen pictures of the Champs Elysees jams, but never heard of midnight traffic.

Originally Posted by Bsrt

Yes, i know, the numbers i wrote were gone :S...
The real difference is 1'5 million, because London is 7'2 million...

Thats 7.4million city population...

This is London's Urban Heavy rail (Overground) network, which is often overlooked. It's as important as the underground (metro) network, especially for those in South London where metro lines do not penetrate far....



When combined, the Underground and Overground provide a complete and extensive network, beaten only by Tokyo:



Unfortunately, I've never been to Madrid, but I hear its got a great transport system.

[Metropolitan]

Originally Posted by minato ku

The traffic is worse in Paris than in London. ( I don't know Madrid )
Parisian are really bad driver.

Place de la Concorde champ Elysee ,Porte d'Orleans ,Boulevard St Michel , Rue de Rivoli, place de l'Opera , Boulevard Haussmann ... are good exemples and the traffic is terrible in suburbs to.

In Paris the traffic is heavy in minight too.

Well, Paris is a lot more densely populated than London is, hence it's natural that this generates more trafic. It's totally true by the way that there are traffic jams at midnight or even later in Paris. You can go to the Champs-Elysées at 3am and the avenue will be filled with cars.

However, I don't believe Parisians are as bad drivers as their reputation is. The average Parisian driver is very aware of his/her environment, and drive actually very safely once compared with most cities I've visited. For instance, if a pedestrian is illegally crossing the street, the Parisian driver will slow down. In most other cities, he would accelerate and honk in order to make understand he has the priority. By the way, in general Parisians don't use a lot the horn compared to what happens in other cities.

The only thing I see about Parisian drivers is that sometimes they create a second lane in order to turn left or things like that. But if they do so, it is actually to make the trafic more fluid. Hence I consider this as rather smart. Anyway, most people who are complaining about Parisian drivers being bad has obviously never driven in Italy, Spain or even in Berlin or Sydney. In all those cities, I had a lot bigger problems with drivers than in Paris, and this even as a Pedestrian.

Another thing by the way is that the freeway network in Paris is far more developped than it is in London. It would be hypocritical to consider it otherwise. While Paris has three circular freeways with the Périphérique, the A86 and the Francilienne, London has only the M25 which is similar to the further Paris one, the Francilienne.

[BenL]

But correct me if I'm wrong in saying that the Périphérique ranks amongst the most congested roads in Europe. There are more motorways running through central Paris but largely thanks to the congestion charge, London's traffic movement appears more fluid.

[Minato ku]

Urban Heavy rail system is very big in London.
Bigger than other city in Europe.

In comparaison Paris RER and suburban rail system
Big but not as London.

[Danger! 50,000 volts]

Londons Underground network is very good, but it would be nice to see some major investment in new lines and stations, extensively covering south of the thames and further out into the suburbs, this could then free up the surface rail networks for faster express services. The bus and train networks are very good, and are amongst the best in the world, masses of money are being spent upgrading surface rail transport, trains and stations accross the city, and the country, this investment will need to be sustained for a very long time however.
Ten years from now and London has the potential to have one of the most up to date public transport networks around, as long as the beaurocracy doesn't hinder progress too much (which, being the UK, it will unfortunately).

However, as far as roads/motorways are concerned, then yes, I'm afraid London is practically third world. Congestion charge or not, the fact remains that it takes over an hour to get from central london to the outer suburbs on most days at most times, the motorway access to airports is indeed crap as well, the M4 was built 40yrs ago, and a two lane dual carriageway from central london to the worlds busiest international airport is in my opinion a fucking joke, indeed as the whole cities road transport system is. Again, unlike the rest of the worlds cities, whose progress has for the most part remained unhindered, Londoners, and indeed most other UK cities, really have shit out thanks to beurocracy and nimbyism. Indeed 40 years ago, there was a plan to create arguably the worlds best and most efficient urban motorway system in London, check this out...

London Ringway System

...indeed, the 'stings' of motorway that are in the city today are actually the first signs of what would have been one truly enormous motorway network, probably as good as that of LA, Houston, Bangkok, etc. Imagine if the same fate had happened the victorians when the railways were proposed, we really would be in the shit then, eh!!!

[sweek]

Originally Posted by Tricky

I can't believe that someone has put up Sydney and
Haven't been to many US or Asian cities, but I believe that in the US, only New York or Chicago would qualify for this thread

Why would you only look at big cities? If you're going to start comparing by size, of course they'll win. But smaller cities can have incredibly good public transport systems too without being in all those top x lists of number of metro stations / airports / passengers etc. Portland for example has a very good system.

[Dallas star]

Very nice

[shenqie]

We don't want an urban motorway network IN central London or green and leafy suberban outer London thank you very much. Would you WANT to live next to one of these ? Do you like breathing diesel dirt and a fine mixture of noxious gases and other dust ? Only in cities where the people have no choice do they get lumped with these.

That's why the London Urban Ringway plan got ditched; From the bit's that had already been built it was seen that it was gonna be an enviromental and urban catastrophe in the making. It'd chop-up the city and destroy the very things, the very structure that make it what it is.

The peripherique in Paris damages Paris because it forms a stinking ringfence around the more bijoux central areas. I'm not really sure of it's usefulness either - for many travellers, it just seems to serve a similar function to the M25 around London linking national routes - when it's not totally bunged up. However, if you travel at 2am in the morning it can be a quick way around Paris ... ;o) Ever tried parking in Paris ? When (mmmh) you do arrive in roughly the area you want to mooch around, you'll end up somewhere completely different 'cos there is no parking - and have you ever been 'triple parked' hehe, it's quite interesting trying to get outa that kind of squeeze. So what's the point of getting there so fast (if) in the first place ? However, driving to you local station DOES make a lot of sense on a wet morning ...

Urban Freeways are only ever really acceptable in dense cities if they are mostly stuck in tunnels, in fact Boston did the right thing by burying most of it's central area freeways recently (well, if the tunnel roof's would stop falling in anyway).

[Dallas star]

Ehat about city lines now a days with teroorist threats what is the safest transportation sys.

[Dallas star]

Common theres got to be more

[ignoramus]

Singapore

1. Anti-terrorism measures

CCTVs in
- Buses (Being tested on some buses)
- Trains (Being tested on the older trains, the newer trains already have them)
- Subway Stations (CCTVs capable of recording digital images are being installed, and the number of CCTVs per station is being increased)

Transit Security (Security Guards)
- Bus Interchanges
- Subway Stations

Police MRT (Train) Unit
- Patrols Subway Stations and Bus Interchanges

Mailboxes and trashbins are removed from all bus interchanges and train stations and relocated to outside these premises.

2. Passenger safety

Platform screen doors
- Underground train stations

[SE9]

London Public Transport voted best in the World

London's public transport system has been voted the best in the world in a survey of international tourists.

The UK capital also topped the poll as the most expensive city for transport, holiday review site TripAdvisor showed.

A quarter of the 2,000 people asked said London was the best overall for public transport, 16% voted for New York and 12% for Paris.

London's cabbies came out as being the best while New York, Mexico City and Paris were said to have the worst.

Terrorist threats

More than 70% of travellers said they use public transport while on holiday and three-quarters of respondents said a city's public transport system was a consideration when choosing where to visit.

Of those asked 9% said they would avoid using public transport because of recent concerns about terrorist threats.

TripAdvisor's Michele Perry said: "London's public transport services get a lot of bad press but it seems that the international travelling community think it's the tops all round, even taking into account that it is also thought to be the most expensive.

"The fact that nearly 75% of travellers said they take public transport into consideration when planning their trips suggests that a quality system is of great importance to a city's tourism industry, not just its commuters."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5294790.stm

[Dallas star]

Wow when I think of psris I didnt know there was cabbys