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except for not being the slightest bit courtiest about blowing smoke in your direction, i find the french very nice people. especially the country folk. but in the u.s. the city dewllers are not as friendly here as well.

how do the french and other europeans manage to keep their public transportation running right on time. when the u.s. cant even get it close.

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You are right about country people being nicer and more welcoming than city people. This is particularly true when you compare parisians with non-parisians.

About public transportation: I once read a theory about France's "Inefficient Efficency". It says that basically we are a lot less obsessed about performance targets than anglo-saxon cultures (mostly because we know we will miss them). It's a paradox, but it makes us more efficient in some areas like public transportation.

The author gives an example: he takes a train in the U.S. from NY to Boston planning to stop somewhere in between. However, a mechanical problem arises. The US train company will more likely decide not to stop before Boston at all so it doesn't miss its performance target ("being in Boston on time"), so if you wanted to drop off before Boston, you're screwed. In France, the train would run a little late but it would still stop at all the required stops so nobody complains too much.

I don't know if that explains it, really. To me, the real question is not "why are french trains on time?" after all that's the way it's supposed to work - but rather "why are U.S. trains always late?". To that quesiton, I have no answer.