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Comment by Simulacra | Hacker News Reader

I worked in Berlin for four months and never once bought a train ticket. There were no fair gates. No one else seemed to be buying tickets so I did not buy tickets. Never once was stopped or questioned, and it was the best public transit system I've ever seen. No public transit system in America can hold a candle to how clean, quiet, and orderly Berlin's public transit system is.

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Probably you didn't see people buying tickets because they already had them, I buy tickets through the app. It seems absurd to me that you though it was acceptable to use a public transport system for 4 months and not pay for it.

You're part of the reason that everywhere eventually ends up with ticket gates. Because people can't be trusted to do the right thing.

A big part of what makes German society so nice is that it's a culture based around mutual trust. The transit system is a reflection of that, and you eroded it by never buying a ticket.

Agreed. This attitude just made me angry.

I thought it was pretty funny. An American goes abroad, abuses the system without the slightest hint of remorse, then complains how America's system is much worse.

I wonder if there's some correlation between that kind of attitude and how the system works...

That was not lost on me

That must be mostly the local rail, regional and inter city almost always check.

I spent a few days in Berlin as a tourist, and I must say that if you do buy tickets it can be a bit daunting.

Multiple machines for different Bahn companies, zoning that's not very well explained, multiple checking machines etc...

In the Netherlands there is a single system for the entire country where you can just tap your transit or debit card and it goes.

I'll keep your tip in mind next time, though. :)

There's a ticket app that takes the guesswork out of buying a ticket in Berlin

https://www.bvg.de/en/subscriptions-and-tickets/all-apps/tic...

It doesn't appear to be in F-Droid or otherwise available outside of the proprietary walled gardens.

You can always buy one at any station and at most kiosks; even pay with cash!

Aurora Store will help you with that.

Sure, I use Aurora on some devices. F-Droid is just a good proxy for libre user-respecting software, and Play Store is a decent indicator that something is full of malware.

So it doesn't really change my original point that "use an app" is not a straightforward universal answer to the complexity. If it were a trustable libre app and you squinted to ignore the table stakes inherent to any mobile computing device, that could be a different story.

> No one else seemed to be buying tickets so I did not buy tickets.

Because most people have a long term ticket. (is that the correct term in English? I mean one that's valid for a week, month or year)

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