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.
- Amsterdam GVB trams (slow but oh so charming)
- Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (efficient. clean. ontime. like the city)
- Kuala Lumpur Monorail (so cool. just google it)
- Boston ‘T’ (as simple as can be to figure out)
- London Tube (my fave by far. just because)
- The Brussels Metro (upper middle class crowd all)
- Paris Metro (multicultural to the core)
- Bangkok Skytrains (meh)
- NYC Subway (very working class)
- Budapest Metro (quaint as in 1966)
- Delhi Metro (growing on me)
- Bombay Locals (give me death.now.ppplllease)
Third Eye Observations 
