Comment by tgsovlerkhgsel

I think this observation is undervalued:

> Wait times are the second-most underrated component in making metro systems effectively faster (right after street to platform time).

Street to platform time made using public transit annoying in several Asian capitals. Wait times are the main reason why I often hate traveling with public transit even in a city with one of the best public transit systems - if you aren't planning your life around the transit schedule, the wait time is essentially an unpredictable part of your travel time (and if you do plan around it, it's one more annoying thing to deal with).

If you leave your doctor's office, and you have a 10 minute train home that goes every 30 minutes, then you really have a 10-40 minute train home - so for practical purposes, you essentially have a 40 minute train. Once unreliability or delays become frequent enough to start being a factor to consider, this could easily turn it into a 70 minute train.

Another big factor is the time between the actual start/end of the trip and the nearest station. Even with near-zero street-to-platform time (e.g. busses/trams) and reliable, reasonably frequent public transit, once you add it all up, a bicycle often ends up being faster than even excellent public transit.