Bus stops here: Shanghai lets riders design their own routes

China is the only modern country that has both the capability and the lack of bureaucracy to just do things like this. It's simultaneously amazing to see and a depressing reminder of how badly western societies are crippled by rules of their own making. It would take years to make a single new bus route in any city, I don't think I've ever even seen that happen.

How making rules crippling public transport? Obviously not everything is great in the west or here where I live but I prefer it to gutter oil or play doah buldings. China is far from perfect as well.

There are pros and cons to each system, of course. But I'd expect the looser system to produce more innovation.

Transit doesn't need innovation. we have been doing it for a long time. Iterate on what is know to work. Small change is generally best.

Transit needs major innovation and overhaul if it's to gain any significant market share.

For instance in the UK (in 2022), a whopping 6% of commuting trips were by bus and 9% were by rail. Even less for leisure: 3% of leisure trips are by bus, 3% by rail. That's terrible market share!

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistic...