I am writing from my seat of BART, the Bay Area’s Rapid Transit agency. I circled the parking lot looking for a spot for 10 minutes, fussed with the ticket machine, which initially refused to spit out my value-laden ticket, and then waited another 10 minutes for my train. I am 22 minutes into my 60-minute commute to San Francisco, and am understanding the 65% approval rating riders give this service. Cut to Taipei, where things are reportedly much better.

In Taipei, riders love super timely and efficient trains, which they board in some of the cleanest stations on the planet. Taipei can throw some impressive numbers around; their metro serves a city of two and a half million people with 69 stops and carries over one million riders per day. Last year, there were only 36 incidences of trains late by more than five minutes (BART -- as much as I love it -- may have suffered that many delays of that length thus far TODAY). The Taipei Metro has been able to increase its efficiency by almost 70% in three years. The Teipei metro features info on televisions that display up-to-the-minute train reporting, connecting information and commercials for revenue. Taipei’s riders rate most aspects of the metro’s operation in the high 90% approval range.

Mass transit is soon to become a critical element of most of our lives if we can’t afford to drive, and yet it is still more efficient and painless to drive around, even at great cost. U.S. cities improving their mass transit facilities can look to Taipei’s metro system for important lessons on making mass transit an enjoyable experience.