[astrange]

> Then, as is the case with many mapping companies, Mapbox shifted focus to the auto industry. My fear of loss of control fully materialized at this point. I’m a lifelong bicycle commuter, and I think cars are unequivocally bad. They ruin cities, contribute to environmental decline (even electric cars!) and kill people.

All these things are correct except for the ruin cities part - that’s a US city planning problem.

Japan, everyone’s favorite high public transit country with a lot of demand for maps, has a higher car ownership % than the US. They just discourage using them for personal trips and commutes via small roads, toll highways, expensive parking etc.

But once you’re a family or want to go somewhere low density and take some luggage, it’s hard to beat them.

What it looks like to me is this guy wanted to work at a geospatial PBC but didn’t know such a thing existed.

[siraben]

> Japan, everyone’s favorite high public transit country with a lot of demand for maps, has a higher car ownership % than the US. They just discourage using them for personal trips and commutes via small roads, toll highways, expensive parking etc.

Do you have a reference for this? From a precursory search it seems the US has a much higher car ownership rate.

[astrange]

Looks like I remembered it wrong. Still, it’s quite high and more than Australia/Canada.

https://internationalcomparisons.org/environmental/transport... (2015)

The UK having the highest transit mode share (in 2014) is a bit surprising.

[aikinai]

These stats all look wrong for Japan at least. I’ve done research specifically into Japanese transportation modes in Japanese using authoritative sources and the real stats are more in line with what you’d expect (i.e. more public transportation, more biking, less cars). I can’t grab the sources right now, but might try to come back and add them later.

[fomine3]

Another source: > 6-2 Number of motor vehicles owned in Japan and other countries (2017) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jrctptpe/2020/0/2020_63...

I think there are more business vehicles in Japan. There are too much sales people. Goods transport is mainly done by vehicles.

[zx8080]

According to [0], the US has higher (812 per 1k population) than Japan (590).

[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicle...

[aikinai]

Japan certainly does not have higher car ownership than the US. It depends on the source you use, but the US is somewhere in the 90s and Japan somewhere in the 60s. Plus they just use them a lot less as you mentioned.

[astrange]

The main issue is people want to copy Japan by building high speed rail, but Shinkansen isn’t actually that useful - it doesn’t carry mail/cargo, can’t carry much luggage, and though pleasant to use it’s quite expensive. It’s closer to business class flights than anything else. Economy class flights inside the country are often actually cheaper if you don’t mind going to the airport.

Japan’s strength is that you can take yourself everywhere daily on a train or walking/biking, and there’s density and malls in the train stations.

[thematrixturtle]

Well, yes? Shinkansen is intercity transport and that's exactly why it's priced to compete with airlines.

[fomine3]

Shinkansen is comfortable than airline, no annoying inspection, almost no wait, and utilization is high enough. So technically it should be priced higher than airline, but I also feel it's weird that high CO2 emission airline is cheaper than lower emission train.

[thematrixturtle]

For whatever reason (probably just inertia), JR has been highly resistant to adopt dynamic pricing, so Shinkansen tickets costs the same regardless of whether you travel at absolute peak or when the trains are rattlingly empty. This is starting to crumble at the edges a little bit, and I expect advance-purchase fares to plunge if they ever do make the leap.

[fomine3]

Yes it's one of the reason to choose airplane for individuals. Govt's regulation for train is an another reason why dynamic pricing aren't done well but it's changing. Currently train+hotel Dynamic Package is available as a cheaper option, but it's not for single day use.

[aikinai]

If you reserve tickets online ahead of time, you can almost always get the 30% discount now. Maybe what's what you mean by crumbling at the edges.

[astrange]

Yes, it’s competitive with airlines but it’s often more expensive. This makes sense as it’s nicer, but I think people looking at the system from overseas don’t realize this. That might also be due to how good the unlimited flat rate tourist passes are.

Besides renting/owning a car, the real cheap option for intercity travel is night buses.

[aikinai]

Yup! Totally agree with all of that.

[elSidCampeador]

what does a geospatial PBC do?