London Transport

Transportation is really good here. Now, I, like any other commuter may have my complaints with missed buses, late buses, traffic, etc but it's surprising how smoothly things do operate. London is designed for congestion (small, narrow streets that curve, end abruptly, suddenly become one way, and lots of pedestrians) yet surprisingly there is very little and the main reason the bus is late is because of pedestrians and crazy passengers (see the rest of this blog) not other vehicles. Three reasons. One, there is a congestion charge which uses cameras to charge all cars entering inner-London (which starts in my neighborhood). Two, unlike NYC, DC, or any other American city, there are almost zero parking garages. They just don't exist!

And three, public transport is incredibly well used here. The population of London is half that of New York City yet ridership on the Underground is 75% that of New York (which is much more dense). In terms of busiest stations for instance, the busiest one in London is Victoria with 77 million annual users, for NYC it's Times Square with 61 million annual users, and for DC it's Union Station with an abysmal 12 million. Also, the bus system is amazing and freaking huge.

It's what I take everyday and it's usage surpasses that of the Underground. It has over 700 routes, 19,000 stops, and takes you pretty much where-ever you want to go. If you calculate in London Overground, the Croydon tram, Thameslink, and National Rail (other public transportation options), you find that the vast majority of working Londoners take some form of public transportation everyday. The remainder seems to be dominated by people who just walk or take bikes (far more people bike to work here than DC, that's for certain).

The car-culture doesn't really exist like it does back home. That is refreshing.