Zurich, the World's Best Transit City















Zurich's Public Transport

You're right about Zurich's public transport being the best in the world. Alain deBotton puts it very well,

"In Switzerland's largest city, the urge to own a car and avoid sharing a bus or train with stranger loses some of the urgency it may have in Los Angeles or London, thanks to Zürich's superlative tram network - clean, safe, warm and edifying in its punctuality and technical prowess. There is little reason to travel alone when, for only a few francs, an efficient, stately tramway will transport one across the city at a level of comfort an emperor would have envied."

That's exactly how I felt when living in Zurich and working at the ETH (yes, in Hoenggerberg!). More on the history of Zurich's system in my TRB paper Implementing Zurich's Transit Priority Program (http://www.andynash.com/nash-publications/Nash2003-ZRH-PTpriority-TRR-18...).

Andy Nash, Vienna

Urban and interurban rail success story

You didn't mention that it's also a lot easier for wealthy individuals to choose public transit over a vehicle when for a single annual price, they can purchase a ticket that allows unlimited use of rails and transit anywhere throughout the (small) country. And the efficiencies of the Swiss national rail system are as impressive as those of Zurich's. Transfers are perfectly timed on quarter hour intervals nation-wide to allow seamless transfers at the major city stations.

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Zurich Transit

This article helps confirm what I have learned about the high quality of the Zurich transit system and its seamless integration of various modes and operating systems, along with highly sophisticated traffic engineering. I hope to visit Zurich in 2012 to better understand some of the city's transit "best practices" for their applicability in helping meet Seattle's transit challenges.

Seattle DOT

The Transit Experience in Zurich

You are right in pointing out that many factors contribute to high transit ridership and that the intercity rail system in Switzerland is very good. In this article I wanted to highlight my personal experience as a rider of transit in Zurich. As a rider I can attest to the sophistication of a system that is in my view peerless in Europe. The system is unmatched even by other Swiss cities - for example, transit experience in Geneva pales in comparison to Zurich and the ridership is correspondingly lower. The other two big(gish) German speaking cities in Switzerland, Berne and Basel, are comparable to Zurich, but perhaps not quite with such verve.

It helps to know a city's history

It helps Zurich, that it was established long before the automobile, and that it is a haven of international banking wealth.

It would be extremely unwise to expect younger cities based on land intensive manufacturing and primary product processing, like many US cities, to try and match Zurich's public transport mobility.

Understanding the History of Cities

Recently I found a c1910 tram map of Zurich. The tram network was extensive but not notably so, scores of American cities had tram networks at that time that were the equal of Zurich`s. What is interesting is what has happened since, the tram network was dismantled in most American cities but it was maintained in Zurich. And since the 1970s they have worked to enhance the network in Zurich to such an extent that is now vastly superior to the 1910 system. The history of these very different experiences between the US and Zurich is very instructive. It would indeed be unwise not to learn from this history.

We can't all be Zurich - or Manhattan either

Sure, Zurich still is what it was - international funds flowing into its banks. Meanwhile, dozens of US cities are easily the world's most productive manufacturing centres, and also have easily the most democratic society-wide rates of property ownership in the world.
Patrick Troy, Australian Uni Professor, has a term in his book "The Perils of Urban Consolidation" - he uses the term "physical determinism" to describe the belief that an urban form and transport system can be imposed and the rest of the world economy and society will work out around that, rather than the urban form and transport system evolving according to decades and centuries of economic and socio-economic development.

We can all be moving via transport networks, though.


Ah. So we shouldn't have defined transportation networks or physical building form. Some apologists will say anything, I guess, to hold the cognitive dissonance at bay.



Cognitive dissonance versus insight

".....Some apologists will say anything, I guess, to hold the cognitive dissonance at bay....."

Excellent assessment of the whole smart growth advocacy racket today, Dano.

While public planning is usually distorted in the favour of some special interest group, I suggest that the distortions were less in the past, when planners actually tended to follow market demand to a greater extent - shock, horror, smelling salts......!

You really should read Patrick Troy's book: here's another quote for you:

"....At its heart the effect of the policy of consolidation is to defend and further entrench central city interests. It fails to recognise the multi-centred functioning of the existing cities. The policy relies on the alleged benefits of a highly centralised fixed rail public transport system without acknowledging to whom the benefits accrue at whose cost.

Because the rich can always obtain as much space as they want and can travel freely about the city, the consolidation policy is effectively targeted at lower income groups. Rather than increase choice for those with the least resources the policy has the effect of reducing it. The rich are also better able to migrate to other centres and use the protection of covenants and other legal devices. The only groups which have to endure the reduction in living space and housing standards are those on the lowest incomes....."

Troy goes on providing insight after insight:

"....One of the consequences of the introduction of tight planning and development controls is an increase in land prices. The consolidation policy presupposes even greater limitations being placed on the supply of urban land. This will lead to even greater inflation in land prices and ultimately, housing prices. In none of the current consolidation programs or policies is this addressed yet as Evans (1988) points out, In England where there is a strong determination to preserve the countryside and to consolidate urban development, the ratio of urban to rural land price is very high. His solution is to reduce planning and development control to let the market increase supply and reduce prices......."

Confirmation bias.

Troy goes on providing insight after insight:

One man's "insight" is another's vapid talking point. Or already-refuted talking point. The selection bias keeps the cognitive dissonance at bay, it seems.



Patrick Troy is a genius.

While disliking dirt cheap arguments, I must say I seldom encounter anyone with as "closed" a mind on this subject, as Dano at Planetizen. Patrick Troy, to Dano, is truly as pearls to swine.

Everyone who claims an interest in urban planning should read Troy's book for themselves and make up their own minds.

Projection and other psychologies.

This thread contains several classic examples of expressions of psychological distress.

Just because someone agrees with your ideology doesn't make them a 'genius', it indicates confirmation bias. And if you are sad that several folks repeatedly note your arguments are repeatedly...erm...lacking, that doesn't mean that others are closed-minded. It just means that the stuff you believe might not actually work here on the ground, and cognitive dissonance clouds input (and makes one mischaracterize what was written). Next thing you know, I'll be a 'collectivist' if the pattern holds.

Jus' sayin'.



I am happy to leave it with the audience

Someone on here is actually constructing an argument backed up by observable data and references, and the other person is doing all the sneering and smearing. I am quite happy to leave it with the audience at this stage, to be convinced - or not.

What about Hong Kong?

Is this a quantitative analysis or qualitative analysis of the world best transit system? I am just curious!

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