[chx]

Hong Kong has a population density of 6,659 people per square kilometer. Similarly, Tokyo has 6,158 persons per square kilometer

The SF Bay Area has a density of 431 people per square kilometer.

Obviously it's easier and much more efficient to build rapid transit when you are serving areas fifteen times more populated.

[astrange]

Would've helped a lot if they'd upzoned near transit, so people would actually live next to it instead of parking lots and SFH. Eventually SB50 will come back and do it, hopefully.

There's also VTA, which guessed completely wrong about where people would move to and so goes from MTV to nowhere.

[solresol]

A better comparison would be with Greater Sydney (442 people per square kilometre).

[lstamour]

I’m seeing a density of 2,419 per sq km for SF urban core at https://www.newgeography.com/content/007367-toronto-solidifi... and that beats New York at 2,054 people per sq km. Probably has something to do with how the urban core is defined and NYC sprawl, but still interesting…

[seoaeu]

Manhattan itself is like 27,000 people per sq km, so how you define urban core matters a ton

[asiachick]

I don't think it's that simple

https://youtu.be/MnyeRlMsTgI?t=50

And just because the bay area average is 431 there are plenty of cities in the bay area with much higher densities and there are comparable cities else where that manage to have great public transportation.