When looking at public transportation in the United States, a few choice words come to mind: “inadequate”, “useless”,  perhaps “underfunded” too. It is true, that save for a few cities in the US (I’m looking at you New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco etc.), America’s public transit options are extremely limited and unfortunately not very useful for the vast majority of people in a metro area.

After spending some quality time overseas in Berlin, Germany. I can say with absolute certainty that there is really no comparing the Berlin public transit system with any other public transit system in the U.S. Berlin just operates on a completely different level far above what any American city can accomplish. This simple fact has paid dividends to the people and the economy of Berlin.

Before I get into the transit system, let me start by giving you a sense of the scale of Berlin itself. This city in Germany is not only a city, but virtually its own city-state, essentially being equivalent in form and function to a state in the U.S. That’s no surprise considering that its size in terms of square miles totally eclipses many other cities of similar populations. Even though Berlin has only about 3.5 million inhabitants within the city limits, the city is about 344 square miles . For a comparison, the cities of: Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco, and Manhattan combined would be just a tad bit smaller than the size of Berlin. A good public transportation system in a city of this size would be extremely expensive and difficult to construct. One could understand if Berlin, due to its size, did not have a notable system. But the fact that Berlin does have a quite extensive system in spite of the difficulty is extremely impressive.

Now here’s a breakdown. Berlin has one light rail system and one underground train system, the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn, which both have extensive coverage throughout the city. There is also an extensive system of buses traveling within the city in almost every area. On top of that, the east side of Berlin has a huge network of trams which further increase accessibility. If motorized transit is not your thing, then Berlin also has a huge amount of special bike lanes, which facilitate bicycle transit.

This system is probably in the top tier of transit systems, outclassing many cities with larger populations and higher densities. There really isn’t any comparison to American cities, Berlin just does transit better. The infrastructure that we see there is a reflection of the priorities of the country and city.

Getting a decent infrastructure like in Berlin will need more than just the capital requirements of money and labor, but also a mindset that is more welcoming to the advantages that public transportation provides: namely, efficiency both logistical and financial, and environmental stability.