Quote:
Originally Posted by miketoronto
Interesting. Kinda makes the north american transit expansion looks really bad  .
I find it interesting also, because China is expanding highways like crazy and promoting the American lifestyle of a suburban house and driving everywhere. So I hope that this transit expansion continues to attract riders and that transit use does not start to decline. |
China is not really promoting the American lifestyle of suburban houses and driving everywhere. Only the really rich can afford such a lifestyle (car ownership is still far more of a luxury here than it is in North America, with costs far higher as a percentage of average income), and even most suburban developments are still FAR higher density than anything seen in North America, with (at least in Shanghai) good connections to the metro system. And although the government is expanding highways significantly, this is only part of a complete modernization of the country's infrastructure that also includes intercity HSR to every single provincial capital city at very least, and metros in a large number of cities across the country. It's going to be a long time, if ever, before road-based transportation takes over from rail-based as the prime method of transportation for the general public.