The Official Transit Thread

[Temujin]

lol, never. Not here. People don't know how to pack here....and thankfully they don't as a lot smell quite awful. The Japanese, Koreans, and Hong Kongers/Chinese tend to have a much better hygiene. I recall a First Nations couple boarding the train even though it was packed to the door. They smelled gawd awful, and several people made grimaces and left the train to board the train behind it. That's just one of many "bad smell" occurrences I've had...most others involved homeless people on buses and trains.

That is the stupidest and most ignorant thing I have seen you post on these forums. Asians have better hygiene? WTF? Guess you'll be wanting to ban the stinky injuns too!

[-DLC-]

That is the stupidest and most ignorant thing I have seen you post on these forums. Asians have better hygiene? WTF? Guess you'll be wanting to ban the stinky injuns too!

Yeah, although I won't derail the thread and refuse to "debate it", I couldn't ignore this inflammatory, offensive post either. A wow moment, for sure.

[silverpig]

was reading about the Shanghai metro on wiki... it's currently 250km long; by 2010 (ie. NEXT YEAR) it will be 500km long. And 877km by 2020. They're adding 600km of metro lines in the next 11 years... now I realize that Shanghai is a much larger city than Vancouver, but still, it speaks volumes about the different ideologies between here and there. THEY know how to get things done - they recognized a need for more rapid transit and ACTED. In Vancouver, it takes a decade just to put out a report stating that it would probably be a good idea to build a line in an area that obviously needs one, doing nothing more than confirming the opinion that everyone already had (speaking of a line to UBC here). Too much red tape, too many NIMBYs here. We need to start getting things done.

It's amazing how much you can get done when you employ cheap Chinese labour (and have a nearly inexhaustible supply of it), and can bulldoze people's houses at will.

[ronthecivil]

It's amazing how much you can get done when you employ cheap Chinese labour (and have a nearly inexhaustible supply of it), and can bulldoze people's houses at will.

Define "at will". It's not that hard to bulldoze people's houses here. In fact, I would say houses are probably the easiest thing to bulldoze!

[Rob_Zepp]

lol, never. Not here. People don't know how to pack here....and thankfully they don't as a lot smell quite awful. The Japanese, Koreans, and Hong Kongers/Chinese tend to have a much better hygiene. I recall a First Nations couple boarding the train even though it was packed to the door. They smelled gawd awful, and several people made grimaces and left the train to board the train behind it. That's just one of many "bad smell" occurrences I've had...most others involved homeless people on buses and trains.

What an ignorant, racist and totally false bit of hate to post on the internet. Pathetic.

[nitronuts]

I've been to Hong Kong and Japan half a dozen times for extended stays and I ride their metro systems everyday. Even in a packed train, people generally smell cleaner than the people here when I ride SkyTrain. It's certainly not being racist, it's what I notice from experience.

edit: or maybe it's just that in Hong Kong and Japan, all the trains are cleaned throoughly at the end of each day coupled by the fact that their trains have much better ventilation/air conditioning so that all the bad smells get vented out even in a packed train.

Edited July 20, 2009 by nitronuts

[inane]

I've been to Hong Kong and Japan half a dozen times for extended stays and I ride their metro systems everyday. Even in a packed train, people generally smell cleaner than the people here when I ride SkyTrain. It's certainly not being racist, it's what I notice from experience.

edit: or maybe it's just that in Hong Kong and Japan, all the trains are cleaned throoughly at the end of each day coupled by the fact that their trains have much better ventilation/air conditioning so that all the bad smells get vented out even in a packed train.

I lived in Seoul, Tokyo and a few other cities in Asia. There are some stinky people in any culture.

Although they do keep their trains well ventilated...they have to with the heat in the summer.

[Common sense]

I've been to Hong Kong and Japan half a dozen times for extended stays and I ride their metro systems everyday. Even in a packed train, people generally smell cleaner than the people here when I ride SkyTrain. It's certainly not being racist, it's what I notice from experience.

edit: or maybe it's just that in Hong Kong and Japan, all the trains are cleaned throoughly at the end of each day coupled by the fact that their trains have much better ventilation/air conditioning so that all the bad smells get vented out even in a packed train.

I think it's the fact that they have AC on every mode of public transport ('cept the Island trams). Compare that to here, where it's deemed an excess and people don't open windows for the fear of the guy behind them yelling to shut it.

[nitronuts]

^ maybe it is their train ventilation that helps...as well as their ridiculously clean trains and stations. They are absolutely spotless.

[Captain Bob]

I think it's the fact that they have AC on every mode of public transport ('cept the Island trams). Compare that to here, where it's deemed an excess and people don't open windows for the fear of the guy behind them yelling to shut it.

Ever take a bus in Victoria? It's quite enjoyable there. The few times I took it there was practically no one on the bus and they had AC. Here' I have to cram on the 98 B-Line that's so packed full that you have to stand up and there's no room to move, also without any AC or open windows you sweat you nuts off. This is why I always stop at 7-11 on the way home for a gatorade. I need something to re hydrate myself after losing 5 pounds of sweat.

[nitronuts]

I think it's the fact that they have AC on every mode of public transport ('cept the Island trams). Compare that to here, where it's deemed an excess and people don't open windows for the fear of the guy behind them yelling to shut it.

I suppose the seats also have to do with it as well. They use hard plastic seats on the trains, and patted seats tend to be on buses only....and you can tell that patted seats are cleaned thoroughly and frequently compared to the ones over here.

[Common sense]

Actually scratch that.

What irks me the most is buses putting on heat, and then having 120 UBC students cram onto a bus. Heat + body heat = sauna. When you get off the bus, you get blasted in the face with a wall of icy air.

[ahzdeen]

I suppose the seats also have to do with it as well. They use hard plastic seats on the trains, and patted seats tend to be on buses only....and you can tell that patted seats are cleaned thoroughly and frequently compared to the ones over here.

They have both in Seoul depending on what line you're on. The different lines all have different interiors. Some have cloth seats, some have metal seats, some have plastic seats...

[JonnyDraft]

lol, never. Not here. People don't know how to pack here....and thankfully they don't as a lot smell quite awful. The Japanese, Koreans, and Hong Kongers/Chinese tend to have a much better hygiene. I recall a First Nations couple boarding the train even though it was packed to the door. They smelled gawd awful, and several people made grimaces and left the train to board the train behind it. That's just one of many "bad smell" occurrences I've had...most others involved homeless people on buses and trains.

Maybe you should stick to cutting and pasting articles sparky.

[nitronuts]

Maybe you should stick to cutting and pasting articles sparky.

Maybe you should read more into the topic, the following posts ....certainly, it has nothing to do with prejudices, stereotypes, nor racism. It's simply my experience on Asian transit systems and comparing that to what we have here, and again perhaps the difference is because the trains are cleaned thoroughly everyday and there is much better air-con/ventilation in the trains.

[ronthecivil]

Maybe you should read more into the topic, the following posts ....certainly, it has nothing to do with prejudices, stereotypes, nor racism. It's simply my experience on Asian transit systems and comparing that to what we have here, and again perhaps the difference is because the trains are cleaned thoroughly everyday and there is much better air-con/ventilation in the trains.

Or just point out that it's probably against the law to push someone onto a train! If not, then simply say to the person pushing you "stop pushing me" and if they keep going, they are assaulting you, and feel free to defend yourself.

[silverpig]

Define "at will". It's not that hard to bulldoze people's houses here. In fact, I would say houses are probably the easiest thing to bulldoze!

Heh, well I know it's easy to bulldoze a house. I meant that it isn't easy to bulldoze a row of houses to make way for a train system when the owners don't want to move. In China they can just move them and make way for the train (it happened for that maglev they've got now), but here you'll get sued if you dig up the road in front of someone's store.

[silverpig]

Maybe you should read more into the topic, the following posts ....certainly, it has nothing to do with prejudices, stereotypes, nor racism. It's simply my experience on Asian transit systems and comparing that to what we have here, and again perhaps the difference is because the trains are cleaned thoroughly everyday and there is much better air-con/ventilation in the trains.

I know your intent but that one comment about the one first nations couple was pretty out of line. There are bad examples in every race and the implication was that natives smell.

Other than that your generalization is somewhat accurate. When someone in Japan has a cold they wear a face mask so as not to spread it. No one does that here.

[Columbo]

I know your intent but that one comment about the one first nations couple was pretty out of line. There are bad examples in every race and the implication was that natives smell.

Other than that your generalization is somewhat accurate. When someone in Japan has a cold they wear a face mask so as not to spread it. No one does that here.

Wow, calm down everyone. The example of the first nations couple was not racist, it was just a real-world example. If he had said "a really dirty man came on the train" would it have been sexist? No way. The only racist thing about this whole conversation is that you all FOUND 'racism' in it. He was giving a real example from his life - it's you guys who indirectly transferred one independent scenario to "all native people," probably because you connect it to pre-existing stereotypes that YOU already all have in YOUR heads.

[Columbo]

It's amazing how much you can get done when you employ cheap Chinese labour (and have a nearly inexhaustible supply of it), and can bulldoze people's houses at will.

The thing is, the reason we're not building a line to UBC, the Evergreen Line is stalled, and the Surrey expansion is still a dream isn't because people's houses are in the way or because there's a labour shortage. It's because people here are too bureaucratic, too quick to find fault, too unwilling to give up an ounce of convenience, and especially of course because of the rampant "not-in-my-backyard"-ism. We should just tell them all to shut up and just build our much needed rapid transit upgrades, because anyone with half a brain who actually commutes in this city knows we really do need them.