Kate Taylor/Business Insider
Seoul's subway system is a public transportation star.
- I road Seoul's subway system for a week as a New Yorker who is sick of my own city's subway woes.
- Seoul's subway is better than New York City's in terms of value, cleanliness, reliability, and almost every other factor imaginable.
- It is incredibly easy to navigate as a tourist who doesn't speak much Korean - and it even had heated seats.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
SEOUL, South Korea - I've lived in New York City for seven years. And, over the course of those seven years, the city's subway system has seemingly conspired to ruin my life.
There are countless meetings I have sprinted into late because the train decided to stop running. I was once stuck underground at 2 a.m. for an hour and a half. I have been crushed by crowds on L trains, stranded on F trains, and paid way too much for Ubers after giving up on A trains ever arriving.
That is to say, I am not someone who has a ton of faith in the subway. With "Train Daddy" Andy Byford leaving his post as the chief of New York City Transit, there doesn't seem to be much hope for the future of New York City's public transportation this point.
So, I traveled halfway across the world to Seoul, South Korea.
Seoul's subway system is widely regarded as one of the best in the world, if not the best. Business Insider has written about its greatness before. So has Mic.com, Jalopnik, and CNN.
I decided I would use Seoul's public transportation for a week to see what everyone was so jazzed about. Here is what I found.