Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
I continue to be puzzled why BJ subways require walking a distance that seems like at least a kilometer when doing a transfer. Plus steps! And that's not a few transfers, or some transfers, but ALL transfers.
That design flaw is right up there with my other China subway mystery: When the train pulls into the station, why does it have to stand still with the doors closed for 20 seconds?
Answer to #1: Because public infrastructure such as subways and airports are designed by engineers for engineers, they don't give a d@mn about user-friendliness for real passengers.
Answer to #2: I'm with you, I have no idea why the delay in opening doors--although I think it's actually only about 5-8 seconds. However, I noticed that the door opening delay on the Shanghai subway system is even longer than Beijing's.
Originally Posted by
Wilke
While we're at it, I don't quite get why the ticket machines in Beijing always ask where you are going, when the price is the same regardless of destination. Maybe they're doing a traffic study.
Because the machines were set up for a pay-according-to-distance system. Beijing was supposed to implement this in late 2008, but it has been deferred and so we still have the flat fee system. Nice while it lasts, but I have no doubt that at some point, they will change over to the distance-based fee structure.
And for more on the traffic issues in Beijing, see
this
I got back to Beijing last night, got a taxi at T3 at the airport at midnight. There was a veritable Taxi Convention going on, surprisingly, as it was pouring down rain. Fortunately no traffic jams at that time, but the roads were far from empty on a Monday night.