Quote:
Originally Posted by The Chemist
Yes, Chinese metros do close too early. They've started running trains until 12:30am or so on Friday/Saturday nights on some lines here in Shanghai, but that's still not very good. Most lines open at around 5:30/6am in the morning.
But with plentiful taxis, Didi, and if nothing else dockless bikes, being out past 11pm is no longer as bad as it used to be.
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Honestly, I find transportation worse than ever after midnight in SH.
Apparently, there are less taxis now than back in 2008 due to a lack of willing drivers (makes sense as Shanghai taxis are still way too cheap. The drivers make peanuts). The drivers we do have are really bad late night. You've got about a 30% chance the guy isn't going to try to over-charge you 5 fold or say that his meter isn't working.
Didi used to be good*, but because of the lack of taxi drivers, you can be waiting up to, and past an hour for a Didi on weekends. Sometimes even longer.
And the treasured Mobike? What was once my most reliable mode of transportation late night has now become so scarce in the early morning hours, you absolutely can't rely on them. Using my GPS, I've found that all of these bikes are brought in to locked compounds by the last user to ensure they will have use of one the next morning. I've seen so many people walking these bikes in to their apartment complex. There used to be an abundance of Mobikes that would remedy this sort of behavior, but the city has cleared over 50% of the stock from the streets.
I'm with you on the Shanghai metro needing later hours, especially on weekends (even if it's just a few main lines). The city is far too large and spread out for people to have to deal with shady taxi drivers, an unreliable Didi, and a lack of Mobikes.
*Remember when Uber was a thing? Before Didi bought them, and made things worse? Those were good times.