Hello everyone, and welcome back to America Under the Microscope, advanced episode. Hi Lulu.

Hi James.

So we're gonna continue our talk about transportation which we were talking about in the basic episode. And we want to start off this episode by talking about money.

Oh, how much it costs?

Yeah, because this is always our concern, isn’t it? Now, how much do you think it costs to or how much do you think Americans spend on transportation every year?

When you say transportation, does this include everything like driving?

Yeah, all inclusive, all inclusive.

All inclusive, I don't know, maybe six, five, six thousand, it's got to be more than that. Right?

Yes. It's about $10,000 a year in transportation costs.

10,000?!

Yes.

OK, so, what if you, like, would it cost as much if you don't drive?

No, it would be a lot less, the biggest things including this are like fuel, insurance and maintenance of your car.

I see.

But it also includes like if you take flight or anything like this, it's quite a lot. And, if you're in the lower income levels of the society, it's a big chunk of money.

That is a lot of money, $10,000 per year just on transport.

Yeah, it's like I don't even think I get close to that here, but of course I don't own a car in China, so that does really lower my transportation costs.

Yeah, I don't regularly drive a car, I mean I can drive, but I don't really drive in Beijing. So, I don't really know how much it costs to maintain a car to pay all of the taxes and parking. So, you guys can educate us and leave us a comment, telling us as a car owner how much you spend on transport a year. Does it sound like a major chunk of your spending?

Yeah. This comes into a major issue. Because if you're trying to move up and trying to make money and you don't have a car, or you have a major accident with your car. You just lost a big chunk of your savings of trying to get it fixed or replaced. And due to our limited public transportation options in many places. There isn't an alternative if you don't have a car.

Plus, there's also if you want to travel anywhere, either you drive like you said, or you just choose flights which can still be quite expensive.

Em, very much so.

What about the buses and the subways? How much do they cost?

Well, it varies. But in general, like in New York City, the subway costs $2.75, but it's not a distance range, it's just a flat to 75.

I see.

And, many places also have passes you can buy so you can even save more money on public transportation and buses.

It's actually not bad.

And many cities also have passes for low income and so for some people can even be free.

That sounds a bit cheaper than stay in London. London underground is more expensive.

Yeah, like from what I understand from like the western world, the New York City subway’s fairly reasonably priced.

Em. And the buses?

New York, it's a flat to 75 whether you're taking a bus or the subway, same fare.

Oh, I see. But what about out of the New York, for example, like in your hometown where you grew up taking buses, do you still remember?

50 cents.

50 cents, when you're growing up, I see.

That was when I was growing up, I don't think it's that cheap anymore.

It's probably gotta be like at least 1 or 2 dollars maybe.

Yeah. It wouldn't be that expensive because I'm from a small town, but I think the bus is it wouldn't be more than a dollar.

I see.

So public transportation is a cheaper option.

However, you talk about public transportation, but it's not really that developed, right? Like we talked about in the previous episodes. It seems like in that particular area the public transport infrastructure. I'm saying it probably in a nice way saying America is not leading the way.

It's not leading it, not at all.

It’s actually quite far behind.

Yes. I know this one thing. My son loves trains and subways and stuff, and he was like when we go to America, what trains will we take? I'm like, ah…None.

Nope.

So, if you're lucky and live in New York City, you're set, because New York City has really good public transportation. You can get everywhere there without a car. But New York is unique by American standards. And we are well behind. And only now are some of these cities really starting to reinvest in public transportation, because people are tired of spending that big chunk of $10,000 on transportation costs every year.

But like why was this case? I mean obviously you pump a lot of money into lots of different things, like technology and maybe military, but why is it that this infrastructure is getting kind of overlooked? Is it just because money or is it because people don't want it?

It’s both. There's a big problem with it, it costs money, so you have to pay for it and build it. If it's gonna be like subway and stuff that's gonna come from tax dollars, and it usually requires levees or increases in taxes to get paid for, and people don't like that. And then some people use these as leverage to win political points.

But also, another issue has to do with where you can and cannot develop these lines, because there might be the rock might not be suitable, or the ground might be too wet to dry. There's a lot of those issues and we also have limitations on technology. So American laws state any trains or any things like that they must be made in America to be used in America. So we can't import any of it.

Okay, I see. I think it's a whole closed loop, like you gotta have made in America trains which means more money needs to be pumped into that train technology. But if there's no profit to be made, then who wants to make the trains or who wants to like spend all that money, right?

Yes. Because someone's got to spend it and trains need a lot of passengers to be profitable.

Exactly. The other thing I think it's also because the cart like we talked about in the previous episode, because the car culture is so deeply rooted in the American psyche and so well developed, everybody just assumes that, if they need to take other kinds of transports, then it needs to be better than their cars and it needs to not be any added cost.

Yeah. When I started the basic episode, I talked about that trend of Miami, the tickets for that train to go to Miami are over $100. But you could rent a car, you could rent a car to drive there for $60, and it would only take you 30 minutes longer than the train.

Okay, I think that is the thing. Yeah. If you can travel there cheaper and was roughly the same amount of time spent, then who would choose the more expensive and longer or less comfortable option.

I don't know. I mean I like taking trains that the trains are developed and fast like in China. Love taking trains, I prefer taking a train to China than flying any day.

Yeah. I think most people probably prefer train traveling, also train traveling gives you that real sense of traveling.

I like the visuals at the windows. It's pretty to look at the landscape.

And let me ask another question, who's behind these? You still do have working railway.

Yeah. We still have Amtrak. And a few private carriers, but mostly Amtrak. which is a…

Amtrak is... belongs to the government?

Yes, it is owned by the government. Because no private company doesn't, no private company wants to operate it, because it doesn't make money.

I see, I see. So it's not really like the government wants it. It is just nobody else no private companies really want it.

Yeah. Because I was looking into taking trains to see, if I can go on a train journey with my family, and like it's just so cost prohibited. It just costs way too much to take a train anywhere. If we were in New York, then sure we could take a train to the like a local city and it's not so bad, but everywhere else in the country. It's just too high.

Yeah. It perhaps is just not worth it.

But talking about all these spending the expenses, let's switch a little bit to the airlines before we wrap up. You know these budget airlines are cheap airlines, how popular are they in America or is it more still the major airlines, the big leaders.

Almost all the budget airlines are operating by the major airlines, or at least the major airlines own a budget option, and they're extremely popular.

Is it like people would opt out all these services like water, drinks, snacks, just give me a cheaper flight ticket.

I tend to like those. For me, it depends on the flight and a lot of Americans are... if it's like a 2 hour flight, I don't need all those things. I'm not gonna be on the plane long enough to worry about it. But if it's gonna be a longer flight, like if I'm gonna be on that plane for4 hours, I don't need a meal, but water or a light snack is greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I think budget airlines are the best, especially if you are traveling short distance.

Yeah, 2 hours, 2 hours is fine.

Yeah, like you said you really don't need that. Okay. So on that note, I think we're gonna wrap up this advanced episode on transport in America. If you guys have anything to share, either it's about traveling around China, America or any other countries, leaves us a comment in the comment section, and thank you James for coming to the studio.

Thank you for having me today. Thank you all for listening.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.