Singapore gets a lot of things right, including this.
One thing I like about their public transport is the “distance fare” system, where buses and MRT are integrated into the same payment system, so if you have a journey that consists of bus->train->bus it’ll only cost you the same as if there were a single bus that did that same total route. The most it’s possible to pay for the longest trip from one end of the island to the other is about US$2.30, and most shorter journeys are barely a dollar.
I love Singapore public transit. I love how they tell you how long it will take to walk to another station, how they have the lines on the station floor that you can follow, how their trains are long and open with no doors between cars, how they have PSA signs reminding people how to be polite to others. I could go on.
In Germany and Austria, it’s standard for all public transport to be part of an integrated fare system. If you buy a multi-day ticket for Vienna or Berlin, you can take all trains, metros, buses, trams for its duration of validity.
I just had a quick look at I think if you adjust for the local economy, they’re pretty much a muchness. A typical journey on the S’pore MRT is around a dollar, a typical journey on the MC Metro is $0.27. Average salary in Singapore is about 4-5 times Mexico City.
Also, if your daily drive only costs $1, it’s not going to get you from one end of Singapore to the other, unless you’re averaging 100mpg and also ignoring all forms of wear and tear, servicing, insurance, depreciation, initial purchase and taxes.
Oh you’re right! Even when Singapore is such a tiny country compared to Mexico, it makes like 10 times per capita higher, although in total Mexico makes about three times more GDP. So it totally makes sense that locally they should have much better standards of living, communication and transportation.
But looks like the metro fares are the same, both around 0.01 to 0.03% GDP. In the USA fare is closer to 0.05% relative to GDP. For me, north of seattle my hybrid car is much less expensive and quicker to use than public transport. However in Seattle city proper using a car is extremely stupid. There’s too much traffic and clearly no parking. Plus the bus and light rail are easy to reach. Yet somehow every morning the freeway into Seattle is packed to the rim. Housing near jobs is too expensive. So people trade housing for ease of mobility.
Wow, Washington state is like 200+ times bigger. Looking at the amount of land left for anything that is plants I would expect a stable or shrinking population. There’s no way that population could have kids and give them housing without an equal amount of deaths. Yeah that’s a hard to look at situation. I hope the planet does start having a shrinking human population.
Ah yes, the birth rate in Singapore is 0.97 so the population is shrinking quickly and their percentage of old age around 65 years is 20% and growing at 13% per year. Within a decade the original population would have been diluted. The general population is unfortunately growing due to migration, which is good. Migration should add new genes to lift up the birth rate. But running out of space and having a 1% migration increase, that’s tough. But now it makes sense. Singapore is rich because of the newcomers. The USA will one day learn that migration is or can be good.
Singapore gets a lot of things right, including this.
One thing I like about their public transport is the “distance fare” system, where buses and MRT are integrated into the same payment system, so if you have a journey that consists of bus->train->bus it’ll only cost you the same as if there were a single bus that did that same total route. The most it’s possible to pay for the longest trip from one end of the island to the other is about US$2.30, and most shorter journeys are barely a dollar.
I love Singapore public transit. I love how they tell you how long it will take to walk to another station, how they have the lines on the station floor that you can follow, how their trains are long and open with no doors between cars, how they have PSA signs reminding people how to be polite to others. I could go on.
In Germany and Austria, it’s standard for all public transport to be part of an integrated fare system. If you buy a multi-day ticket for Vienna or Berlin, you can take all trains, metros, buses, trams for its duration of validity.
And as soon as you leave your fare system everything changes.
Nowadays there are country-wide passes in both countries (Deutschlandticket, Klimaticket).
Yes but if you do not have one it can become super complicated.
We have the same system in Switzerland. All countries with civilised public transport do.
That’s 2.3 more pricier than my daily drive. They gotta do better. I recall Mexico had their metro at much lower prices that made sense.
I just had a quick look at I think if you adjust for the local economy, they’re pretty much a muchness. A typical journey on the S’pore MRT is around a dollar, a typical journey on the MC Metro is $0.27. Average salary in Singapore is about 4-5 times Mexico City.
Also, if your daily drive only costs $1, it’s not going to get you from one end of Singapore to the other, unless you’re averaging 100mpg and also ignoring all forms of wear and tear, servicing, insurance, depreciation, initial purchase and taxes.
Singapore is quite wealthy. A dollar doesn’t even register for them, it might as well be free. A dollar to them is like 5 pesos to you.
I’ll have to figure out how much pesos are right now.
Oh you’re right! Even when Singapore is such a tiny country compared to Mexico, it makes like 10 times per capita higher, although in total Mexico makes about three times more GDP. So it totally makes sense that locally they should have much better standards of living, communication and transportation.
But looks like the metro fares are the same, both around 0.01 to 0.03% GDP. In the USA fare is closer to 0.05% relative to GDP. For me, north of seattle my hybrid car is much less expensive and quicker to use than public transport. However in Seattle city proper using a car is extremely stupid. There’s too much traffic and clearly no parking. Plus the bus and light rail are easy to reach. Yet somehow every morning the freeway into Seattle is packed to the rim. Housing near jobs is too expensive. So people trade housing for ease of mobility.
Oh I didn’t even realize how tiny Singapore is:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWT2aW4w9J2OEO6zDIpi2U5yYixgOCQvKlRx8QwtyPjJj4Wyv_Oo1aXP2l38I0_spIAJAD748mj6kTOGJ4WnkWMm9OT4YieQTGbd-1z7c5GXgl164w83wKvgcG8YM4dUrt0Qoi7DOQ_i09/s1600/landuse+2030.png
Wow, Washington state is like 200+ times bigger. Looking at the amount of land left for anything that is plants I would expect a stable or shrinking population. There’s no way that population could have kids and give them housing without an equal amount of deaths. Yeah that’s a hard to look at situation. I hope the planet does start having a shrinking human population.
Ah yes, the birth rate in Singapore is 0.97 so the population is shrinking quickly and their percentage of old age around 65 years is 20% and growing at 13% per year. Within a decade the original population would have been diluted. The general population is unfortunately growing due to migration, which is good. Migration should add new genes to lift up the birth rate. But running out of space and having a 1% migration increase, that’s tough. But now it makes sense. Singapore is rich because of the newcomers. The USA will one day learn that migration is or can be good.
The USA being so anti-immigration is very ironic, since the country is literally made up of immigrants.
Yup. It’s both sad and crazy.