Canada, or most North American cities do not have the density to support the intricate subways Shanghai, Tokyo, HK, or other Asian cities have, which of course is the benefit of having more living and green space in NA cities, though I have come to like the ability to walk/cycle almost anywhere you need to get to in Asian cities.

It’s interesting to note that a fair bit of the rail/subway technology in Shanghai and around China is Canadian, via Bombardier – too bad it couldn’t be more widely used back home.

And the trains are comparable to Canada as well. To visit my family in CA I can spend about $1200 for a family of five to fly there in 5 hours, or about $1800 to take a four day train trip *without* a sleeper.

Plenty of arguments can be made about the cost of transportation relative to local average annual income which may minimize some of the price disparities but there it seems illogical for train travel to be so drastically more expensive than flight. It’s not like comparing CA/US to Europe where things are relatively close together and population density is fairly high and evenly spaced out along the lines. China is much much larger and yet train travel is affordable compared to flight.

In terms of comparing prices, I think the key issue is what people can afford to pay. Sure it sounds better to pay 1-2RMB to ride a bus in Suzhou than to pay 14RMB to ride one in Chicago, but minimum wage in Suzhou is about 700RMB/month, versus 55RMB/hour (9900RMB/month assuming a 40 hour work week) in Chicago.

But you do have my sympathy. I find the cheap taxis in Suzhou to be addictive – I only take the bus when I can’t find a taxi.

And then you have New York City.

Sure, it’s unsustainable….in China. But Canada? I mean, kudos to you for actually enjoying public transport, but I personally can’t stand the fact that taking a bus or train always takes atleast 30 minutes more to where you want to go than a car. The reason why public transport works in China is because they need it. For most of North America, other than the occasional “global event” such as an olympic games, public transport is unlikely to be nothing more than a waste of tax dollars and incredibly slow. Now if one were to throw a High speed tokyo-style bullet train in the mix for a dollar a ticket, then sure, I’d go for it.

But Chip, to answer your question, no. If I had cheaper and convenient alternatives I would definitely prefer public transport. Maintanance, gas, insurance… these are expenses I would happily give up if I had something that would do the same job. I think that the need-a-car mentality is something that’s bred into us, but isn’t very sustainable (just check out any street in China and think what it’s going to be like when the country has a “real” middle class).

@Bill, I agree — however, if the government is waiting for average Canadian’s to make the change and demand it, they will likely be waiting a long time. Someone needs to jump first, and they’re the ones being paid to look out for the best interests of Canadians. I think giving Canadians a more environmentally and economically viable transport solution is definitely in our best interests. Never mind the millions of tourists that also visit the country’s major cities.