Comment by potatolicious | Hacker News Reader

Comment by potatolicious | Hacker News Reader

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I immigrated from Taiwan in the mid 90s and went back this month, the first time in nearly 17 years.

When I left, it was squarely sitting in second-world status, but I was surprised to go back and find a modern, bustling, clean, developed nation. There is infrastructure there, unlike most American cities. I live in Seattle, and everything around here feels like it's falling apart - you walk around and there's the distinct feeling that you're walking through a relic... something from another era, now disused and slowly decaying. I did not get this feeling anywhere in Taipei. Everywhere you go something is being overhauled, more metro lines are being built constantly, there's new construction, new businesses. Technology is being integrated into people's lives in a wonderful way - even my 80 year-old grandmother navigates all the touch screen smart-card kiosks in the MRT system like a pro.

It was a bit of a disappointment to come back to Seattle and pick up a paper transfer riding a dilapidated bus that doesn't even have a voice-recorded stop call-out feature. It's even more depressing to watch all the political infighting in the city about rapid transit buildouts - the Taiwanese tunneled through much more densely populated, existing developed areas years ago, and now they get to enjoy one of the most advanced rapid transit system I've ever seen, while here in Seattle we've been sitting on our ass about this issue for 30 years.

There's a lot I love about the US but it's true that many cities have poorly managed public transit systems.

I don't think I have ever grabbed a bus transfer and not felt disappointed either, regardless of how clean it was. Maybe you need to upgrade your lifestyle and buy yourself a nice set of wheels. That's how we roll in America ;)

It's not just public transit - everywhere you go in Taiwan you get the distinct feeling that things are getting better, all the time. There's an optimism in the air that is dangerously absent in America.

> "Maybe you need to upgrade your lifestyle and buy yourself a nice set of wheels. That's how we roll in America ;)"

Nah. Grew up in a suburb, drove around all through high school out of necessity. I consider a set of wheels a downgrade in lifestyle. Why would I blow away so much free time behind the wheel of a car, missing the opportunity to connect with the place I'm in by ensconcing myself in a shell of steel, plastic, and glass?

Why would I voluntarily live in a place where the most interesting landmark is a strip mall, and the only people I will ever meet are the ones that I must consciously choose to meet? Whatever did we do to the richness and spontaneity of life to deserve that kind of existence?

Heh, that really bring up another salient point: in Asia urbanism is embraced - the Taiwanese have found ingenious ways to solve many of the problems that are common with city life in the US. America, on the other hand, despite standing amidst the flaming wreckage of its housing market, with inevitably ever-higher gas prices staring them in the face, is still desperately clinging to its suburbs and its utterly unsustainable lifestyle.

While Seattleites are gridlocking their way every morning across the 520 bridge here, the people of Taipei will travel the same distance, car-less, going from doorstep to doorstep in half that time.

Because you can use that shell of plastic and glass to take your kids to school, go to the grocery store and haul your groceries back home, go to the building supply store and haul the supplies you need to build a deck on your house home, go out of town on a vacation, tow your boat to the marina to go enjoy a weekend at the river, have transportation to take someone to the hospital if there is an emergency and so on.

And, most importantly, have a way to transport yourself from one place to another without having to deal with young thugs and punks, junkies blasted out of their mind, people selling you stuff, crazy people hassling you, loud people, smelly people, annoying people, and generally being able to avoid the dregs of society.

Public transportation is wonderful, in theory. One of the best cities that has nailed it properly is Portland, Oregon. However, public transportation is still public transportation and as much as I truly detest the act of driving and the wasted expense of a vehicle, I detest having to deal with loud obnoxious high school kids every day, the crazy people who won't stop scratching themselves and urgently talk to you about government conspiracies or aliens when you want to rest, people shooting heroine in the seat across from you, people and their enormous brood of children out for a trip, people who haven't showered in months brushing up against you and violating your nostrils, fights and other miscellaneous violence and . . . far more than I detest a car and an auto insurance payment.

Oh, and of course cities that are only now really being modernized and coming into their own will be more advanced and well thought-out. Let's, see, which will be better . . . A place whose infrastructure and architecture and contents were built up fifty to two hundred years ago using the newest technology of the day? Or, for example, a city in China being built up with the newest technology and benefits of 2011 -- with little to nothing to have to demolish before doing so?

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