Reflections: The wonders of public Transporatation

Okay, after nearly dying from all my jet lag, seriously, I'm not used to being so tired all the time...STOP LAUGHING!  Anyway, I decided to do another reflection tonight.  After a long drive home and several busy days with lots of commuting between my parents house and my apartment, I found myself pining for Japan again.

Yes, I've been pining for Japan since I left, but let me tell you a little something about the wonder's of public transportation.  While Japan does have cars, it's hard for any foreigners to use, usually.  They drive on the opposite side of the road, the steering wheel is on the opposite side and often cars have to navigate incredibly thin stretchs of road, where wall and metal are mere centimeters apart.  In short, owning a car in Japan can be useful, but it is a lot of trouble.

While I was in Japan I went for a bike.  It was great exercise, the roads and sidewalks were better designed to support them, I.E. we actually had side walks and crosswalks specifically for bikes, and above all else, the cities were so small and well designed you could really get anywhere you needed to be with a bike in practically no time at all.  But what about for when you wanted to go on a road trip, see the sights, you know, travel?  Well, this is where public transport comes in.

There are three basic levels of public transit in Japan.  Buses, trains, and the more expensive Shinkansen.  Buses are for convenience more than necessity.  They allow people to easily navigate almost any city so long as they understand basic Japanese and Kanji.  The fee is usually very reasonable, usually around 1-4 dollars to get around the whole city, and they follow a timetable that is easy to plan around and reliable.  I road a bus for the better part of my semester whenever I needed to get to the train station.  They were reliable and usually had enough space for everyone.  Main problem is expense.  Using a bus regularly can prove expensive.  I must have spent at least $40 or more a month on buses before I stopped and started walking.  Still, compared to the buses I've ridden in bigger cities like New York or the noticeably crappier school buses of my youth, the Japanese bus system is leagues above our own, offering reliable transportation around a city for commuters or tourists.

Trains are next and they are invaluable in Japan.  Like buses they have clear timetables and schedules, locations are easily laid out for people to see on handy little maps, and pricing is easy and typically very cheap.  Unlike buses, they connect towns in a region and are important for allowing commuters to: go to school, go to work, visit exotic locales, and visit with family/friends.  Trains in Japan make it easy for people to take a trip on the weekend or whenever to a place they might not be able to reach by bike or bus, such as Kyoto, Nara, or Fushimi Inari, all of which were connected to Hirakata by train.  Sometimes you need to change trains a few times or take subway lines, which are basically underground trains, but with a proper knowledge of trains, they are invaluable for getting around.  While they can be crowded, the cheap price makes it easy for people to explore Japan or to commute between places.  Trains can be as cheap as 2 bucks a trip or as expensive as 10, usually.  The lack of cheap trains in the states puzzles me a bit.  The transportation is cheap, usually clean, and reliable.  It worked very well in Japan.  Granted, they sank millions into public transit and had tracks all over the country connecting it by train.  The states invested more in cars...for some reason.  I guess I miss being able to just walk or bike down to the train station to go someplace new or fun, instead of getting in my car and driving for an hour...

Shinkansens, or bullet trains, while novel, aren't that special compared to Japanese trains and buses.  Sure, they go fast, but the price is comparable to train prices in the states for traveling great distances, or cheap plane tickets.  The only real difference is speed, as the Shinkansen is faster than trains in the US.  They're actually kind of boring, once you've ridden one.  To me, they're not that different from planes...just on the ground and a bit faster getting on and off.

So...the public transportation in Japan is wonderful and I really loved it, but is it that big a deal?  Well...I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the freedom of my car.  While not as motivated to explore as trains, as they can only go to a few set stops, the freedom of the car in the US allows me to go anywhere quickly and to really live my life.  In Japan, with crowded roads and much more readily available public transportation, I can see why cars are downplayed and trains made king.  Here in the states, though, cars can take people anywhere, with privacy and comfort not offered by public transportation.  Sure, the Japanese keep to themselves and public transport is relatively quiet, but the closeness people put up with for it annoyed me to a degree.

In the end, I found it to be more of a cultural thing.  I found public transportation convenient and got a chance to people watch, so to speak.  Watching the Japanese on a train can tell you alot about them as a people, as even small children take trains or buses unattended, due to the ease of their use and the character of the people on trains.  I would like to see more cheap trains in America, which would make for easy holidays for some people, but really...it's not going to happen anytime soon.  I feel we're stuck with our cars.  Besides, I doubt Americans could make the trains run with the same efficiency of the Japanese, who apologize for even a minute's tardiness on the train platform.

While I miss them, trains aren't that much better than cars.  It really depends on the culture, layout of the country, and your personal preference.  At least, that's my opinion on Japanese public transportation.