The Atlantic: A New Yorker's (Sadly Lopsided) Scorecard of Tokyo Transportation

Last edited Sat May 19, 2012, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

A New Yorker's (Sadly Lopsided) Scorecard of Tokyo Transportation

Eric Jaffe
May 16, 2012





Recently I spent six weeks in Tokyo for a project entirely unrelated to my transportation writing at Atlantic Cities, except insofar as they both involve the planet Earth and the human race. Still, I intended to keep a scorecard comparing Tokyo's transportation system to that of New York. I kept score for about two days before stopping, mostly out of pointlessness and a little out of patriotism. It was clear even at this early stage which city would win.

No doubt a glass-half-emptyist such as myself could find fault with elements of Tokyo's transportation network given the proper time and linguistic capacity. But within my admittedly limited sample set I found the network — particularly the intra- and intercity rail system — difficult to overrate. The worst you can probably say about it is that it very efficiency creates a problem of crowding. Which, to keep the sports metaphor going, is a little like complaining about the jog after hitting a homerun.

So I'll invoke the mercy rule and, rather than provide a halfway completed scorecard that was tending toward a shutout, offer instead a few broad observations, for New York's own system to take or leave as it will. Hopefully take.

Airport Transportation

Contrary to popular myth, not everyone arrives into Tokyo in a plane that looks like this:



When you do arrive into Narita Airport, Tokyo's main international entry point, you're about an hour and a half from the downtown area — which itself is often half an hour from other parts of the rather expansive city. You can take a taxi into the city from Narita for a fare on the order of several hundred dollars. You can take public rail transit into the city for a fraction of the cost of a cab but a multiple of the hassle, at least if you have big bags. Or you can do the sensible thing and take what's called the Airport Limousine Bus service for about $40. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/05/new-yorkers-sadly-lopsided-scorecard-tokyo-transportation/2022/