I don't know if the Netherlands transit system is just like its capital, Amsterdam, but if it is, it'd get my vote.

It's the only city where I feel they've got it right with some real bicycles lanes, tramways, buses, metros, and trains, and with good deals for tourists.

Anyone has another Best Transit System contender?

I've never been to any of those places, so I can't vote!

I vote for Taipei's amazing subway system!

China has a lot of public transportation just about anywhere you go, so that's better than the US, but some of the buses are so bad that everyone on the bus could get out and drive his own car and the emissions and traffic impact would probably be lessened...

I've never been to Japan, but since it's been wealthier for longer and developed extensive mass-transit options, I imagine it's better. Then again, the packed subway trains are legendary, maybe public transportation just stinks all over.

Japan public transport is in fact amazing. Yes,downtown Tokyo where I live is really not fun if you go in the rush hours but I go earlier. Very good quality, high safety, extremely punctual, love my IC cards etc. Amazing. However, if you also includes bicycles I remove my vote since they use pavements for both pedestrians and bicycles. China is much worse in that sense and it usually only take me 2 minutes to get really angry at drivers there.I have lost track of how many rear view mirrors i have kicked of cars that try to run me over. Good subways in many places though.

@balsa
it depends which region you look at, the connections between villages in Holland ain't that good to be honest, because many people take the bike or car, therefore the buses only run once or twice every hour and they're not as punctual as in cities. But I guess that's a common thing for villages all around the world. More than 95% of the trains arrive spot on time and are satisfying, but I think for most foreigners public transportation in Holland is rather expensive.

I think the subways in China's biggest cities are good but cycling is definitely not. But even a Chinese driver can't get a Dutchman of its bicycle!

The biggest problem for me is behaviour in public and the safety, therefore China can't get my vote anyway, and I voted for Japan even though I've never been there. Just based on what I've heard and seen on TV. Guess I'm not the only one:) Didn't vote for USA because of the train system, and the bus route Grand Canyon - Wyoming is also dissatisfying.

Though Japan has a lot of systems, I found them to be poorly integrated. Circuit Train, Subway, Local train all for Tokyo? I got dizzy getting around. Singapore and Taipei's mass transit puts it to shame. So, I said None...of the above.

Yeah, I ride a bike around China, and I wouldn't count bicycling as public transportation, but tons of people in Wuhan are IDIOTS in traffic. The system is such that it generally accommodates stupid behavior as well, which makes things worse because it slows everything down and necessitates 'creative' traffic practices to get anywhere, and that progress usually comes at the expense of others.

Some good idiot driver maneuvers would be the 'stop in the middle of the road during rush hour', the 'u-turn wherever I damn well please', the 'I'm turning right, why would I look to the left?', the 'I don't see the lane lines because they're under my car', and the 'there's no traffic on the other side of the road'. I won't count the 'we've both got green lights but I'm going to turn left in front of you' maneuver because the fault for that goes to the city planners who cheap out on left-turn lights at intersections (so they can afford Louis Vuitton purses for their mistresses).

Good idiot pedestrian maneuvers are the 'the crosswalk's just too far away', the 'this lane's for the bus stop, why else would I be standing here?', the 'what's a sidewalk', and the 'I've got a very important Sudoku game going on here, that's why I'm looking at my phone while crossing the road blindly in traffic'. That last one makes me kind've wish that pedestrians had no rights on the road so drivers could just pancake those people who pull out their cell phones specifically so they can cross the road blindly like that; maybe after the first million people would start to catch on.

Hahahaha FatDragon good points, I like the pancake proposition.

I'd vote for Vienna - it has at the same time one of the best public transport system in Europe and is the most inexpensive one.

If I had the option to vote for the UK or London... I still wouldn't! ><

I love Japan. Japan's transportation system is excellent. I love it. The buses are always clean and quiet. It's the best way to system I've ridden in. Now, with that said, it's expensive. Since I was a student when I lived in Japan, I got a monthly pass for 5000 yen a month (could add the subway for another 5000 yen a month). However, that 5000 yen a month is only for students. AFAIK, there is no monthly pass option for non-students. It's easy to spend over 20,000 yen a month if you don't have one. :(

Now Korea, the buses weren't as nice and clean but they were super cheap. For 900 won, I could get anywhere in town. For 3000~5000 won I could go all the way to the heart of Seoul and back. Taxis were cheap too. Could go to the next town over for just a few thousand won.

That's pretty expensive here in Vienna you pay between 50 and 120 euro per semester (4 months) for all public transport (it depends if your main residency is in Vienna, then it's 50). Outside of the semester you can get a monthly ticket for 30 euro.

That's for students, everyone else can get get a yearly ticket for 560 euros and they are lowering it now to 365 euros -- a pretty good deal in my opinion.

I haven't been to China or Japan, but if their public transit systems are worse than the ones in the U.S. I feel sorry for them as ours are a joke.

When I first came to China in 2008 I was living in Shenyang. At that time there were these (assumingly illegal) green and white minibuses that would travel the same routes as the real public buses. I guess since the normal public buses were already so full there was a lot of business to be had. They were so run-down, dirty and unsafe that my friends and I used to call them "death buses". One day I even noticed a half-open bottle of kerosene or something rolling around behind the back seat. In spite of all that we would ride on them quite regularly; makes life interesting!

My experiences with public transportation have actually been quite positive. It depends a lot on where you are.

Nanning, China has a very nice bus system. It might take you an hour to get where you're going, but other than rush hour, which can get pretty hairy, it's quite comfortable. Biking, however, is extremely dangerous in Nanning. During two years there, I had two close friends hospitalized after bicycle accidents.

Yangshuo, near Guilin, has a pretty minimal bus system around town, but everything is accessible (and beautiful) by bike.

The long and short distance bus routes are great as well. For instance, Wuming is a town that's a 45 minute drive from Nanning, and if you go to the bus station on the North side of town, there are air-conditioned buses with plush seats leaving every 10 minutes or something like that. All the towns in Yangshuo county are very well served by bus routes that leave from Yangshuo station.

No question though, it's hard to beat places like Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong.

I've just returned from a trip that went "Tokyo, Shanghai, New York" ... timing win with this pole :D I didn't take many buses, mostly only the subway of each city so everything I say is based mostly on trains!

Tokyo wins overall. Its clean, efficient, everyone obey's the rules, stands to the side to let people off, walks up/down the correct side of the stairs so even when its peak the crowd seems to move pretty fast. Cost the most but worth the money personally.

The only downside the Tokyo (as mentioned above) is the different systems. Having 3 different subway maps for each company was slightly annoying but mostly we just stuck to JR lines 90% of the time and it worked out fine. Also a special note to the magnitude of the underground network of tunnels in their system. I've never seen anything like that kind of underground city - you can literally walk for hours without retracing your steps or going to the surface!

In terms of wait time, train cleanliness and sign-age, Shanghai was pretty close to Tokyo but a different atmosphere. In Japan everyone was being nice and making way, standing in the designated areas and forming perfect lines. Shanghai, every man for himself - you want to get on while an old lady and a toddler try to get off? Push right on in. The train system itself is perfect, but I just prefer the Japanese culture and attitude. Don't tell my Shanghai based in laws though :P

NYC was frankly scary the first few times. The stairs down were dirty, the very first one we took had a faulty neon globe that was flickering like a horror movie and there was a homeless guy yelling at people. Once you got down and into the actual station it was fine, but the stairs down alone were enough to put me off. I never had a single bad experience mind you, and was surprised at the complete lack of graffiti. However I never felt a moment of hesitation walking into the tokyo or shanghai station so NYC is last mostly because of that. Walking down tiny dirty stairs put me on edge so I never really enjoyed the train rides even though logically they were on time and easy to use.