Honestly, as much as I wanted a car as a 20-something, I do think this is for the better. There needs to be some adjustments as a lot of the buyers are commercial entities trying to corner a somewhat unsustainable ridehailing market, but overall I'm happy with the tradeoff, especially with the improvement in public transport in recent years.
improvement in public transport in recent years
I've only visited once and that was several years ago, I'm surprised to hear the public transit has actually gotten better. I'm from Chicago, which is one of the few US cities with a functional metro, and it's blown out of the water by the mrt just on comfort alone
Chicago Transit is awesome if you're traveling toward/from downtown but god does it suck if you're traveling across the north or west side. Chicago needs a east and south train from the metro station in Jefferson Park or something
This. Chicago needs a loop line - or given the coastal nature of the place, a crescent line - several kilometers out of downtown.
There was a period in the 2000s when the metro was under maintained and profits were maximised (fuck you Saw Phiak Hwa), where there were times even at 10pm I couldn't get on the train because they were so packed, thanks to horrible intervals between each train. Said undermaintence lead to some pretty bad breakdowns (for Singapore anyway) around the mid-2010s . Ever since then they've increased maintenence, decreased interval times during both peak and off-peak periods, and more lines were also added, though some of them were already being planned in mid-2000s.
The bus system has also improved when they moved to a hybrid model, where government tenders for operators to operate the bus routes, so there's private and public aspects into it.
While not perfect, it's definitely better than the mid-to-late 2000s, and I'm really grateful we have it.
Honestly, as much as I wanted a car as a 20-something, I do think this is for the better. There needs to be some adjustments as a lot of the buyers are commercial entities trying to corner a somewhat unsustainable ridehailing market, but overall I'm happy with the tradeoff, especially with the improvement in public transport in recent years.
I've only visited once and that was several years ago, I'm surprised to hear the public transit has actually gotten better. I'm from Chicago, which is one of the few US cities with a functional metro, and it's blown out of the water by the mrt just on comfort alone
Chicago Transit is awesome if you're traveling toward/from downtown but god does it suck if you're traveling across the north or west side. Chicago needs a east and south train from the metro station in Jefferson Park or something
This. Chicago needs a loop line - or given the coastal nature of the place, a crescent line - several kilometers out of downtown.
There was a period in the 2000s when the metro was under maintained and profits were maximised (fuck you Saw Phiak Hwa), where there were times even at 10pm I couldn't get on the train because they were so packed, thanks to horrible intervals between each train. Said undermaintence lead to some pretty bad breakdowns (for Singapore anyway) around the mid-2010s . Ever since then they've increased maintenence, decreased interval times during both peak and off-peak periods, and more lines were also added, though some of them were already being planned in mid-2000s.
The bus system has also improved when they moved to a hybrid model, where government tenders for operators to operate the bus routes, so there's private and public aspects into it.
While not perfect, it's definitely better than the mid-to-late 2000s, and I'm really grateful we have it.
I owned my first car at 17 and oh… the hours I spent waxing it. Unwinding car culture in the US would take a long, long time.
Yea, it would, starting with alternate transport infrastructure, which is also not aided by city design. So yea, there is a ton of work.