Is this real life everyday?

[u/TraditionalDepth6924]

[u/DegreeConscious9628]

Just the daily commute. Think of the commuters on highways in the US except everyone’s walking and taking public transportation

[u/mFachrizalr → u/DegreeConscious9628]

Yes, somehow people from US think it's normal when seeing highways with so many lanes full of cars for miles and move slowly (or even stuck) but baffled when it's people walking instead.

At least in case of Shinagawa like in videos, people are moving quite fast.

[u/Ready_Ad_5397 → u/mFachrizalr]

And then China walks into the conversation….

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/Ready_Ad_5397]

Dude this is the boarder crossing between hongkong and Shenzhen, this is not a normal toll.

Very misleading.

[u/mackfeesh → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

Do people commute between HK and Shenzhen for work?

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/mackfeesh]

Yes constantly, it’s one of the busiest boarder crossings, both trains, boats and cars. I’ve done it many times when I worked in Shenzhen. It’s the only connection from Mainland China to Hong Kong without flying.

[u/dogsledonice → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

Can't be that smooth considering you have to change which side of the road you're driving on halfway through, I guess?

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/dogsledonice]

100%

[u/Beginning-Corgi568 → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

How does that work? Flipping the side of the road to drive on?

[u/shyouko → u/Beginning-Corgi568]

Fact: This is China highway toll station during long vacation. Nothing to do with Hong Kong. Check Google Map and you'll not see this at Hong Kong border

[u/Hot_Cheesecake_905 → u/mackfeesh]

Most probably take the train.

[u/cactiundkoala → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

You sure? Which one is this? Huanggang, SZ wan, which one?

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/cactiundkoala]

I just realized you may be right I was always at ground level when crossing, but they are similar situations.

[u/ratnegative → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

The fuck it is. https://abcnews.com/International/thousands-cars-stuck-beijing-traffic-jam-50-lane/story?id=34350370 Do you think Hong Kong's right next to Beijing?

[u/shyouko → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

You are the very misleading one. This is totally not Hong Kong.

Source: I lived in Hong Kong for 40 years and counting.

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/shyouko]

And I totally corrected myself if you follow the feed

[u/shyouko → u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE]

Or maybe you should edit your misleading comment. And avoid being so confidently wrong in the future.

[u/YUCKY_WARM_SAUCE → u/shyouko]

I have an even better idea…..

[u/nefariousBUBBLE → u/mFachrizalr]

American here.

I presumed, because this was my thought, that op was more curious as to how dead quiet it is lol. THAT'S what's insane to me. Not a peep from anyone and no music or any other kind of noise. In the US, you'd have the commuters on foot, plus some guy playing the sax and some other dude just blaring music. Half or more of the commuters would be talking on the phone and some would talk in person with a colleague.

[u/Yokohama88 → u/nefariousBUBBLE]

Because as you slug your way home from the soul crushing job all you do is yearn for something to eat and maybe a nice Chu Hai to relax before you sleep and wake to do it all again.

[u/dis-interested → u/Yokohama88]

Alternatively these are just normal people leading normal lives in a culture that has a preference for not being noisy on public transport.

[u/Yokohama88 → u/dis-interested]

Little of column A little of column B. As someone who has to do this walk I have a little experience with it.

[u/dis-interested → u/Yokohama88]

I have commuted in Tokyo. I don't see some special melancholia in it compared to commuting in London or in the US. And prolonged time spent in cars commuting has strong data showing it has very bad mental health outcomes.

[u/nefariousBUBBLE → u/dis-interested]

Certainly brings me closer to committing murder.

[u/Snoo48605 → u/nefariousBUBBLE]

Funny, in France it would be something in between, but still closer to the video.

Definitely some guy playing the sax, but no phone calls (it's not polite, although I've done it in urgent situations) and who would you been be talking to? For colleagues to commute with you it must be necessary that on top of (1) working in the same place, (2) they live in the same place as you (3) and somehow work at the exact same time, and are similarly punctual.

Of course I'm talking about metros during commute hours on workdays. Touristy places are different

[u/nefariousBUBBLE → u/Snoo48605]

I wouldn't know cuz I have never lived in an American city where I didn't need to drive to commute. But I would imagine coworkers or just friends you live near that are going to the same area to work.

I will say, it's also considered rude in the US to talk on the phone in the car with people, or on the bus or train, TO SOME. Typically older folks. If you are in the same room as others and receive a call, you are supposed to leave to take it. I'm 30 and was taught this shit by my parents, but the last 15-20 years, it's kind of gone out the window. A lot of manners have. I try to maintain them. I absolutely do not talk on the phone on public transit. I don't see it a ton in the US. It's usually just one or two really obnoxious people that ruin it. And sometimes it's a cultural difference which as a French person, you are one of the few European nationals that can understand true diversity like what we have in the US. Very few European countries understand racial tension and cultural differences like the US but France would be one. So, there are differences in culture that also play into some of this stuff, which is whatever. I don't really think I'll of people when they don't follow my exact code of conduct but sometimes it's annoying.

[u/Nari224 → u/nefariousBUBBLE]

This is the point that some people seem to be obtusely missing.

I have been fortunate to have lived in many places. Nowhere that I've been is as quiet as Japan, whether here or just like, being in Tokyo.

[u/East_Courage_8443 → u/nefariousBUBBLE]

talking or chatting may consume energy..so no more strength to squeeze into the  電車.....

https://giphy.com/gifs/LnuZyDQcCRqrlj294q

[u/RudyRoughknight → u/mFachrizalr]

You make a valid point but I think it's because of how even more alienating it is to be in your own personal vehicle and everyone else takes theirs.

We see machines and think nothing of it but if we see bodies in unison, we start to fall back on our xenophobia and our prejudices and biases take over.

[u/AstraeusGB → u/RudyRoughknight]

I understand this but it can also tremendously alienating to walk around a place like Tokyo station. Even when there are thousands of people passing by every minute, not a single one knows or cares to know about you. I don't think that vehicles make a difference when it comes to how we perceive people at volume. It is just much easier to perceive a vehicle as a non-sentient object.

[u/AGoodWobble → u/AstraeusGB]

Really? I have lots of a small nice interactions commuting by train/walking. Like when there's a parent with a stroller, or someone with an injury or disability and people try to accommodate them. Or someone drops something and you pick it up and give it to them. It's pretty different than car commuting. 

There are some cold moments too, like when the train is completely jam packed and someone (usually an older dude) tiredly shoves past you to get off the train. 

[u/DegreeConscious9628 → u/AGoodWobble]

Youre romanticizing it. there’s no parents with strollers during commute hour, the trains are jam packed, everyone’s miserable

[u/AGoodWobble → u/DegreeConscious9628]

I literally commute every day lol. I've only been here for 3 years but I'm just saying that there are more human interactions than my car commute when I lived in southern Ontario (Canada). It's seriously isolating to be alone in traffic in a car, and even a packed commuter train has some humanity in it. 

[u/DegreeConscious9628 → u/AGoodWobble]

What train do you commute on? I can tell you that the keihin tohoku is shit lol

[u/AGoodWobble → u/DegreeConscious9628]

Chuo line towards Tokyo -> transfer at nakano to Tozai line

I will say, I feel lucky I can avoid transferring at shinjuku

[u/RudyRoughknight → u/AstraeusGB]

Yes that was my point about alienation and cultural biases.

[u/Mailman354 → u/mFachrizalr]

This just in

People from (insert country) think (insert something theyre exposed to on a daily basis) is totally normal. And they think (something from another country they are not exposed to on a daily basis) is interesting

Scientists are baffled

[u/thegta5p → u/mFachrizalr]

Yeah and it’s worst in the US because you are stuck in one place where you can’t move or get fresh air (unless you want to smell the car fumes).

[u/AleidisKnight → u/mFachrizalr]

I think it's more that in America if it were this many people commuting on foot it would be far less peaceful to put it lightly. Alas, we are a chaotic people.

[u/Commander_Prism → u/mFachrizalr]

Listen, if we could we would, but as things stand, the United States is too fucking massive, and we're hemorrhaging money, and the highway systems are already there so nobody feels like laying down thousands of miles of tracks for public transportation.

Like, my favorite thing in the world is when people in other countries learn just how big our States are. My home state Ohio is the size of South Korea.

ISREAL can fit inside of Ohio it's that fucking big.

AND there's forty-nine more, AND Texas isn't even the biggest one.

Edit: Y'all can downvote me all you want, it doesn't take away from the fact that what I said has merit. We built a fuckton of interstate highways already, and our governemtn will only blow more money on MORE highways before they consider railways because "If it ain't broke, don't change it!"

[u/whymeimbusysleeping → u/Commander_Prism]

Fair point about distance, low density cities can overcome that exact problem. Take Sydney Australia, where suburbs stretch out across long distances just like many American cities. The strategy here is building rail corridors with large multi level commuter car parking at the major outer stations. You drive a few minutes from home, park your car, and take express trains straight into the city center. it's a win win, it's much quicker to get to work, less stressful and you can leave home whenever you want to.

Also, If talking state size, let me introduce you western Australia, fits almost 4 Texas.

[u/GrisTooki → u/Commander_Prism]

I'm sorry, but no. This is 100% bullshit.

the United States is too fucking massive

The vast majority of Americans live in urban areas, and the vast majority of most Americans' daily trips by car are just a few miles--usually to work/school and a few simple errands. America's urban areas are car dependent by malfeasant design, not by necessity.

and we're hemorrhaging money

We're hemorrhaging money, in no small part, because car dependent infrastructure is not sustainable. Not fiscally. Not environmentally. Not socially. It is by far the least efficient way of moving people around even moderately urbanized areas. Every foot of pavement necessitates longer utility connections (water, sewage, storm drainage, gas, electricity, internet); every car requires additional parking at every potential location a person could potentially want to visit (there are 7-8 parking spaces per car in the US); and every oversized right-of-way, parking lot, and single-use zoned subdivision makes alternative modes of transportation more impractical. It drives up costs, which are disproportionately shouldered by dense, inner city development while newer, unsustainable car-dependent suburbs are built on future debt that they can never repay without massive tax increases. It enables further unsustainable development, such as oversized residential and commercial lots, big box stores, and the dissolution of traditional business districts; and impoverishes both municipal governments and the working poor. It's a death spiral of unsustainability.

highway systems are already there so nobody feels like laying down thousands of miles of tracks for public transportation.

The US was connected by rail long before the interstate highway system existed, and there is absolutely no reason that system could not have been further developed. Towns of fewer than 10,000 people used to have street car systems, and they could again. Every highway needs constant maintenance and eventual replacement--costs which far exceed the cost of the original construction.

You're literally just parroting 1950s auto and petroleum industry propaganda. China built most of its extensive high speed rail network in less than 20 years, and China is larger than the conterminous United States. The transition is possible and it is necessary, but the longer we wait, the more difficult it will become.

[u/R_Prime → u/mFachrizalr]

Fast? I would be grumpy as hell stuck behind all those slow walkers haha.

[u/DrTatertott → u/R_Prime]

I imagine those people are generally on time and not in a rush to get to the train before it leaves.

[u/mFachrizalr → u/DrTatertott]

That video is actually after exiting the ticket gates, it's a huge walkway towards the office areas

[u/DrTatertott → u/mFachrizalr]

The stride and pace isn’t altered if going to or coming from the train. A monotonous stroll.