The Atlantic: A New Yorker's (Sadly Lopsided) Scorecard of Tokyo Transportation

[marmar]

A New Yorker's (Sadly Lopsided) Scorecard of Tokyo Transportation

Eric Jaffe
May 16, 2012





Recently I spent six weeks in Tokyo for a project entirely unrelated to my transportation writing at Atlantic Cities, except insofar as they both involve the planet Earth and the human race. Still, I intended to keep a scorecard comparing Tokyo's transportation system to that of New York. I kept score for about two days before stopping, mostly out of pointlessness and a little out of patriotism. It was clear even at this early stage which city would win.

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. The worst you can probably say about it is that it very efficiency creates a problem of crowding. Which, to keep the sports metaphor going, is a little like complaining about the jog after hitting a homerun.

So I'll invoke the mercy rule and, rather than provide a halfway completed scorecard that was tending toward a shutout, offer instead a few broad observations, for New York's own system to take or leave as it will. Hopefully take.

Airport Transportation

Contrary to popular myth, not everyone arrives into Tokyo in a plane that looks like this:



When you do arrive into Narita Airport, Tokyo's main international entry point, you're about an hour and a half from the downtown area — which itself is often half an hour from other parts of the rather expansive city. You can take a taxi into the city from Narita for a fare on the order of several hundred dollars. You can take public rail transit into the city for a fraction of the cost of a cab but a multiple of the hassle, at least if you have big bags. Or you can do the sensible thing and take what's called the Airport Limousine Bus service for about $40. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/05/new-yorkers-sadly-lopsided-scorecard-tokyo-transportation/2022/

[djean111]

1. Thanks for bringing this article!

I worked in Tokyo quite a bit in the 90's, and it is still my favorite place.
The description of the transportation is absolutely spot on.
And for commuters - getting into the subway station right when it opens, at 7 am, means you can ride in blissful serenity until, oh, 7:20 am, when the madness starts. The author's use of "subatomic particle" is perfect for rush hour.

[Sanddancer]

2. Loco Motion.

I'm familiar with the Osaka/Tokyo/Kyoto subway/underground systems and the Shinkhansen bullet train and thought them wonderful.

Back in the late 80s the Osaka network only identified the stations in Japanese. You had to be careful to count your stops before getting off. What pleased me the most to see was that they were running an advertising campaign on the trains for a local grocery chain. The campaign consisted of vacuum packed vegetables swinging from the ceiling of the compartments which were high enough for most the Japanese citizens to walk under by quite a few inches but had to be dodged by the likes of myself. It occured to me that if that had been any city in USA/Europe those vegs would not have lasted a second. Thye would have been destroyed and scattered.

The bullet trains were extremely clean and punctual with the carriage appearing in front of you at exactly the spot marked out on the platform. I did have one concern though when using the toilets. I had once accidentally chosen the cubicle with the more traditional squat toilet and it took me some time after assuming the position at 180MPH, to persuade myself that this was not Amtrak/British Rail and that I wasn't about to be thrown all over the place. It was turned out to be an easy passage in all regards.