tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris. And better quality transport too. Again chauvinism coming out whenever anything is mentioned about France. Paris n est pas le nombril du monde.
For a country about to have so many elderly people, I think the elevators are hard to reach and the floors shouldn't have been made of hard shiny/slippery marble. And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting.
There's nothing in the world to complain about aside from that.
> And it's actually quite expensive to get around if you start counting.
Because you are closer to paying the real price of the ticket than in Paris where transportation is heavily subsidized by the state. In Japan most train companies have now become fully private.
The great thing about private train companies is how many other businesses they've built in the stations. There's a near infinite number of fake-French cafes in every subway.
Meanwhile here my nearest Caltrain station has some car repair places and a mystery fondue restaurant that never seems to open. I think it's a money laundering scheme.
Well look at Paris' metro and its lack of elevators and escalators. Most stations have none! Good luck if you are in your seventies and your legs don't carry you anymore...
tokyo has way better access to public transport than Paris.
And at half the density. The median neighborhood of the Toyko metro area is 150 while central Paris is 300 and outlying neighborhoods—not as well served by transit as Tokyo's—are over 200.
And better quality transport too.
That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers. In my experience, no one else matches the consistent care and respect that even young and rowdy Japanese people actively apply to public space.
Density is a little bit bullshit, because density only takes in account the people living in a particular place, not the folks who actually commute every single day to work to go into offices where nobody lives.
Actually the rail network in Tokyo transports far more people than the RER/Metro in Paris, every single day.
Tokyo is busiest rail network in the world. Paris is far, far behind.
> That's largely a matter of serving Japanese passengers
No, even the stations, the network, the trains themselves are of better quality that the ones in Paris, and have much higher passenger capacity too. Well, Paris' network is pretty old so you can't blame them for everything, but they have stopped investing heavily in transportation for a long time. The metro trains are still ancient in Paris.
Actually the rail network in Tokyo transports far more people than the RER/Metro in Paris
Tokyo's metro population is 35 million. Paris's is 11 million. Each of them is served by multiple commuter and underground subway train networks. Comparing raw passenger numbers is ridiculous.
Density is a little bit [obscenity],
Density over the built up parts of a metro area, including offices, homes, parks, industrial and commercial areas, and roadways, tells us quite a lot about the basis of transit dynamics. Paris consistently packs a lot more people in the same land area than Tokyo.
No, even the stations, the network, the trains themselves are of better quality that the ones in Paris
Paris spends enormous amount compensating for its more difficult passenger base with space, maintenance, security, cleaning personnel, and more. That doesn't even begin to address the different demands for municipal investment and corruption in governance. Many collective projects that succeed in Japan could never do so in nations where citizens are less committed to cooperation.
I don't claim it's the best of the world but calling it expensive and dreadful if just not the reality. Compared to what I have experienced mostly in Europe I found it good and inexpensive.
You should mention the numerous strikes of the RER to give a full picture of the reality then. Because that's a real issue for people who want to rely ONLY on public transports in Paris.
And when it's not a strike, it's the breakdowns. This morning, my commute was one hour longer since there was no train on my line and I had to walk to another one.