How Tokyo Gets Transportation Right

As a New Yorker visiting Tokyo, Eric Jaffe set out to keep a scorecard comparing his home city's transportation infrastructure with that of the Japanese capital. He found that the score wasn't even close.

1 minute read

May 18, 2012, 1:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Invoking the mercy rule, Jaffe cuts his full evaluation short. "No doubt a glass-half-emptyist such as myself could find fault with elements of Tokyo's transportation network given the proper time and linguistic capacity. But within my admittedly limited sample set I found the network - particularly the intra- and intercity rail system - difficult to overrate."

So rather than compiling an unflattering comparison of the two, he offers observations about the qualities that make Tokyo's transportation infrastructure so superior, in the hope that New York might take note. His examination focuses on Airport Transportation, Public Transit, Intercity Rail, Pedestrians-Bikers, and Cars-Taxis.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 in The Atlantic Cities

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