this was FASCINATING. mcc and i went to visit masukomi this past weekend, in boston. and were both utterly blown away by public transportation that WORKS!. being from houston, there's NOTHING. everyone drives. it's the only way to get anywhere. the metro system absolutely sucks. it's utterly impractical. you HAVE to drive. (this is more than likely why we have such a damn high death-rate due to car wrecks. because there are so many cars.)

but boston has the SUBWAYS, the T. and you can WALK in boston. boston makes sense. i can't begin to express how foreign a concept this is--or how COOL.

the subway also fascinating in it was alive. the sights and sounds and SMELLS. there were musicians, magicians, vendors, peddlers, just this teeming of people just this collective of humanity. men in business suits stand next to college students with backpacks covered in ralph nader pins. everyone's there. there suddenly is no difference, no "class by cars". everyone is just there, going about their own business.

i think it's safe to say the both of us were as fascinated by functional transportation in a large city as we were by most of the things we saw in said city.