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We often say that transit is better for cities to build around than cars, but why is that the case? Today’s video compares two similarly sized wealthy cities to show why transit cities are good for everyone, and not just for transit users.
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Ever wondered why your city’s transit just doesn’t seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
32 Comments
7:52 not a fair comparison considering how drivers in Hongkong take turns.
Make video about Dhaka Metro and building in such a insanely complicated environment
Hong Kong isn’t a best place to drive… there is a saying “ it is stupid to own a car in Hong Kong “
your channel i awesome! can you make an episode on Genoa, Italy? There are interesting metro and filobus solution being proposed
Have done a back of the envelope comparison between the Greater Houston Urban and Metro area against germanys most populated area. There is for one the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr) and the Metropolregion Ruhr-Rhein (Rhine). Both places are comparable in population, population density and surface area.
The big difference is public transit and with that land use. Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (public transit provider) connects the different cities in a manner not visible in Houston. Land utilization is roughly 35-40% settlements, 35-40% agricultural land, 15-20% forests, 5% water. In comparison the I-610 is a loop around Houston with a land utilization of 31% of single-family housing.
What's that middle-lane thing at 9:02? Looks enormous … and pretty empty.
I'm sure others have pointed this out- but Houston has exceptionally bad traffic while Hong Kong is known for it's good public infrastructure.
I support more public transit options for environmental reasons but this is a dishonest comparison. A better one would be Corpus Christie and Haarlem in the Netherlands. Both of which are good examples of cities that have effectively implemented car and public transit options.
You make a point to say that Houston should have more competition because of thelow government interference in texas, but this is unfortunately not how it works, more often than not, a lack of government interference lets monopolies thrive and gives them the power to destroy any competition. That, combined with the billions in tax breaks given to mega corporations in order to entice them to move to texas, (tesla, oracle, hp etc.) makes Texas one of the worst places for a competitive, healthy free market.
Houston also has few, if any, zoning regs, unlike most places, which also contributes to its sprawl.
Mostly transit cities are more financially sound. You don’t have to spend 10,000 dollars per car every year. Also transit cities are more dense which saves money (look up Not Just Bikes or strong cities on this). Finally less health risks from pollution from cars, less accidents, and we fight climate change.
I agree with everything in this video and here in my midsized midwestern American town, I desperately want less sprawl, more high-density development, less car dependency, more trains and streetcars, and a frequent, reliable, and national (nationalized) intercity rail network that will take me to the large midwestern cities that are only a couple hours away. Really I just want more choices than being forced to drive. That's supposed to be one of America's major values right?? Freedom of choice?? Well the vast majority of Americans have no choice when it comes to their everyday transportation. Finally I'll also say, research Georgism and the Land Value Tax.
I want to know how I'd get a lot of stuff back home without a private vehicle and using a bus/transit instead
Cos I buy like 5L oil and 10kg sugar, flour and corn meal, and I can't carry that all the way from the bus station to my house
Sprawling not Sprawly
Great video!
I don't mean to nitpick, but the H in Houston is a hard H. Hyew-stin, not Yew-stin. And definitely don't pronounce it "How-stin" like those people from New England!
When comparing trip times, we often forget the overhead associated with cars that isn't there for transit. If a car trip and a train trip both take 30 minutes, it's easy to think they're the same, but the train trip is 30 minutes with virtually zero overhead. The car trip requires time spent on refueling, registering, cleaning, parking, refilling windshield washer fluid, various safety inspections, repairs, maintenance, etc.
There is a ton of time spent on cars outside of the trips themselves. Buying a ticket or transit pass only takes a few minutes.
Houston also has HOV lanes free during peak hours, so rideshare and driving to the airport is pretty much the same regardless of rush hour traffic
Yet another example of 'if you want to drive, make sure everyone else wants to use public transportation'.
I'm glad you are realizing the politics behind good transit and it's tie in with successful urban planning. I rewatched your video yesterday about not making public transit free and I feel the current Reece would disagree with the past Reece.
Immigrant from HK here – Family is still in Toronto. I have to add that parking in HK is really inconvenient – you'd save more time taking transit rather than trying to find a space in those multi-level parking garages. Parking in residential areas are limited and very pricey. Also, the vehicle registration tax of a privately owned vehicle is any where from 40% to 150% of the price of the vehicle. This roughly translates to paying 1.5x to 2 x more for a car. My family used to live in Mei Foo, now a major transit hub, in Kowloon and we were contemplating buying a car because my mom had to commute on a bus 1.5 hr/day to go back and forth between Mei Foo and Tuen Mun, a "satellite city" in the New Territories (West Rail was not built yet in the 90s). My family, at the end, gave up on that idea because it was becoming cost prohibitive.
When we lived in Markham in the 90s, my family bought 2 cars!!! It was a new found freedom for my parents that they could only dream of in HK.
Don’t disagree with the points, but constantly pronouncing Houston as if it was Euston kept taking me out of it. (Born and bred Houstonian, though don’t live there currently)
One of the biggest problems of why people in America will never change their habits from thinking they need a car is that the scheduling of transportation is awful. Until scheduling gets better to include over night trains people will not change their habits.
Your focus is needed in the discussion of transit in our society (US). We’re so used to framing things as one thing pitted against another, but if we join together and make common sense choices, everybody benefits as you suggest. Thank you!!
Houston's public transit is horrid! plus it is more than 90 degrees F a majority of the year. Good luck without a car!
Convert highways into railroads
Houston's entire metro is close to equal to city proper of Hong Kong, but very close to hong kong is Shenzhen and not far from it, Guangdong. Its a megametropolis. Not to detract from your original point, the comparison is unfair
HK relies on transit so heavily that some routes (both trains and buses) are overloaded even if the frequency hits 3 or 4min. Indeed owning a car would be even more convenient, but using public transport is certainly enough for daily life.
US: Only poor people need to live beside a station
Hk: only rich people can live beside a station
I think there are two points you're glancing over a little bit:
1. Good transit doesn't only mean that you've got an alternative to driving your car – some people don't have the latter option (underage people, disabled people, elderly who had to stop driving because of weaker senses and slower reaction time). For those people, the freedom of movement still applies (they all need to leave their house too!). So good transit isn't not only a choice that should be available, but a human right for those who don't have the ability to drive, and/or struggle with the use of cars (so taxis, ubers etc.) in general.
2. More people in transit always means less traffic, too. Even drivers should want more transit, because it means less cars on the road and therefore more reliable driving times!
It also enables a better use of the public space that are roads, meaning more equal use for all participants of traffic. If all the space between buildings is required for a 4-lane highway, where do pedestrians and cyclists go? If one lane were to be removed to enable reliable, high-capacity transit (BRT, trams, etc), another lane could probably be removed soon afterwards to better accommodate cyclists, pedestrians etc. After all, roads belong to us all, not just the cars!
Yea no. Canada banning the unvaxxed from public transit no matter the reason why you were unvaxxed is enough reason to not support having to be completely reliant on public transit. In fact the entire 2020-2022 period shows the downside of public transit: the government has WAY too much control over it and who's allowed on it
Should do a video on public transportation, or lack thereof, in Atlanta
I lived in Houston for several years and while I have good memories from my time there (mostly related to the friendships I developed), I was so excited when I had the opportunity to move to a city with better transit available (Chicago). I was so frustrated having to use my vehicle to get anywhere in Houston, whereas I eventually got rid of my car in Chicago and rarely ever missed it. I will say even with a more extensive rapid transit network in Houston, the thought of walking to a transit station from May – mid October doesn't sound particularly enticing, when heat & humidity is incredibly high and the heat index is frequently 104F+ (40C+). If they want to entice transit ridership, not only is frequent reliable service that goes where people want to go an important element, but also making it comfortable is also important which probably means enclosing stations to make use of air conditioning (e.g. a monorail network or SkyTrain-type network with enclosed stations since a subway system there would be difficult given the high water table). It's one thing to walk in the cold & wait for transit since you can often just pile on more layers to keep warm. It's an entirely different scenario if walking to a transit station when it feels like a sauna since there's only so much clothing you can take off to try to cool down. Using a car where you have your own air conditioning to get from place to place will likely remain the most attractive travel option as a result.
5:07 Yes, it's a premium service, and you can exchange a little time for a lot of money by taking the Tung Chung Line to Tung Chung and getting on the S1 onward to the airport.