In Canada public transportation is run by the cities (for the most part anyways), so I can really only speak for Toronto (although I'm fairly sure most other cities here have good transport systems). The system here is pretty good, in my opinion. Of course there are always people who complain, saying the fares are too high, buses and trains are never on schedule, etc., but I've never had a problem. The entire city is accessible by bus, and the downtown core (where I live) is also served by streetcars (or trams or trolleys, same thing) and the underground subway. The subway is generally a better mode of transport because it bypasses all the road traffic (obviously!), whereas the buses and streetcars can get stuck in traffic. Our subway system is much smaller than that of New York's though, and I believe it is also older. Thousands of people use public transport here everyday, and the peak times are at rush hour in the mornings and afternoons, when everyone is heading to work or school.

It costs $3 for each ride, but there are passes and tickets available, and the price is lower. Passes and tickets are good if you use the system everyday or for the better part of a week. Oh yeah, it is also MUCH cheaper than a car, for which you have to buy gas and pay for maintenance, etc. I have a car that I use almost everyday because it's pretty good on gas and my uncle is a mechanic who gives me good deals on maintenance, but I sometimes like to take the bus or whatever. And public transport here is a good way to pick out all the weirdos in the city, just as long as you keep yourself safe!

Cable and satellite? It's pretty good here. Though most of the stuff on TV is garbage! There's basic cable packages, in which you get an analog signal and about 40 channels. I think that's about $100/month, but I'm not sure because I don't have it. I have digital cable. Digital cable is a major step up from basic and it's basically equal to satellite, except you don't need a dish. That package offers (well here anyways) up to 500 channels. Most of the programming is repeated though because the majority of channels are networks that broadcast the same shows at different times across the country. That costs almost $200/month. Satellite offers pretty much the same thing for roughly the same price, and sometimes you can get a radio package (like XM or Sirius) for an additional fee. Both digital cable and satellite offer specialty channels that show only movies for example.

In Toronto, the channels are mostly Canadian, but we do get a lot of American channels that broadcast from Buffalo or Rochester (the networks like Fox, NBC, CNN, CBS, etc). With the digital cable and satellite, you get all of that plus the channels that come from other parts of Canada or the US. What's so great about that is, if you know you're going to miss your favourite TV show you can either record it to PVR or catch it later from a more western time zone.

Lateralus, thanks for telling me what netball is! I sort of had an idea but I wasn't really clear on the dynamics of it.

In the US public transportation really varies. In the bigger cities it's usually pretty good. Elsewhere, no so much. In Philadelphia, where I live and which I would describe as a sort of a second-tier American city (1.5 million people), we have two subway lines, trollies, and extensive bus and light-rail service. It's not bad but it doesn't run late enough and some parts of the city don't really have access.

As far as TV goes, I don't have cable so it's free for me. And I get maybe 12 or so channels that anyone would actually want to watch, plus probably another 12 with crappy local programming, infomercials, religious crap, etc. When I had cable, it cost $40 or $50 a month and I had maybe 20 or 30 channels that might be of potential interest and then probably an equal amount of filler. That was one of the really low end packages. Higher end packages I believe run somewhat over $100 a month an give you a couple hundred channels.

public transport in Budapest is great. i don't have a car, i rely on it exclusively. a month pass is around $50 USD.

downtown is covered by a small subway system (3 lines), a much larger tram system, plus an enormous number of buses and trolleys. The trams and trolleys extend to the edges of the city, where suburban railways take over to help commuters get to the nearest villages. the bus system is very pervasive, covering the whole city very efficiently.

the subway is the only place where tickets are checked on entry. buses, trams, and trolleys get infrequent, random checks by plain clothes enforcers. that's the one bad thing about the system - it's too easy for bums to ride free, so there are often smelly folk taking up 20 seats because nobody wants to sit near them!

no idea about television, i just pay for internet and download the shows i want to see. incidentally, i have one of the best internet connections in the world. i pay about $15 USD per month for a 30/20 line with no cap. a hell of a deal!

Hmm...great deal <jealous>

Fastest we've got in South Africa is only 4meg. What makes it worse is the ridiculous prices. The costs with the country's main ISP (Telkom) is about $51 p/m just for the 4meg connection (plus additional for line rental, which is about another $16 p/m). Then comes the installation costs (which can be avoided if you do it yourself), costing you about $75. They're nice enough to throw in a major 3GB's worth of browsing p/m. Want more? "Pay up" (more shabby costs)

Phones have it much worse. About $0.25 per megabyte ($253 per gigabyte)

Public transit in Istanbul is really good, it's one of the things I love about this city. IDO, the company that runs most of the ferries here is the largest ferry transportation company in the world. My commute to work is a nice relaxing 25 minute ferry ride down the bosphoros, and I go past Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi palace, the galata tower, all these thousand year old historical buildings are just along the way to work (ok I'll stop bragging about my awesome commute.)

Buses run all over the place, and dolmuses (shared taxis) run services between many different fixed points around the city. The metro has two lines that access the majority of the major centres, and the metrobus is a really fast way to get around without having to be stuck in traffic. Many areas also have cable cars running a circuit around the neighborhood.

The metro, ferries, metrobus, trams, and public buses are all only 1.50TL, and if you have an akbil (an electonic key) you simply load it up and then pay with that every time you use transit, no need to buy tickets ever. You also get a discount each time you use successive forms of transit, like taking the metro, then a ferry then a bus.

The only drawbacks are that it's usually very crowded, and the transit system can be insanely complicated. It takes most people a few months to really work out all the intricacies, but after that it's really great.

Does anybody know how the weather in oh say... Luxembourg compares to North America?

Depends on what part of north America you're talking about. Google can help you with the forecast for Luxembourg.

Well, what I meant was which part of North America is Luxembourg's climate most similar to? But yeah, I'll just google it instead...... :o:

WHO HAS SNOW?! not meeeee :D

Well of course I do.