Do you and your city ‘fit’ ? A test.

The Subway in a city is a great way to check what sort of soul the city has and if you and the city are well matched.

Wait. What ??

Allow me.

At rush hour hop into a local metro train (the bus or any other relevant pulblic transport will do too)

Observe behavior but not just of others but also YOURSELF. Now that last bit is a sort of surprise but do remember as much as the multitude is milling around YOU, you too my dear sir, are a part of the multitude. (There is your daily dose of Nietzsche)

How are people behaving inside the coach and critically : when getting off and on at busy stations ? (by the way this test works even with driving situations in peak traffic scenarios). Do people wait for the passengers to exit ? Do you ? Is there unwelcome pushing and jostling beyond the threshold of ‘normal’ ?

Don’t let one ride be the sole basis for conclusions. Take a few as sample data. 4 conclusions are likely to emerge about the city you live in and if you don’t like the quadrant you land onto  : Time for action Spiderman!

I have, from my personal subway rides over the last 2 years,  ranked my own experiences from best to worst.

  1. Amsterdam GVB trams (slow but oh so charming)
  2. Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (efficient. clean. ontime. like the city)
  3. Kuala Lumpur Monorail (so cool. just google it)
  4. Boston ‘T’ (as simple as can be to figure out)
  5. London Tube (my fave by far. just because)
  6. The Brussels Metro (upper middle class crowd all)
  7. Paris Metro (multicultural to the core)
  8. Bangkok Skytrains (meh)
  9. NYC Subway (very working class)
  10. Budapest Metro (quaint as in 1966)
  11. Delhi Metro (growing on me)
  12. Bombay Locals (give me

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