People usually claim that London taxis are prohibitively expensive and that driving in NY is impossible, however these conclusions wouldn’t be the same if they were based purely on relative costs:

Suppose you lived two miles from the center of New York City or London and wanted to go to the town center for a one hour lunch by cab, subway or car, how much would the travel cost:

Cab:
London: $27.60
NYC: $15 [54% of London price]

Subway:
London: $8
New York: $4 [50% of London price]

Car:
London: $21.50
New York: $2.75 [13% of London price]

This is based upon the following data:

Cab:

1 mile cab ride (with 1 minute waiting time), excluding tips:

London: $6.90 (noon), $9 (midnight)
http://www.transportforlondon.gov.uk/pco/fares-detailed.shtml

New York: $3.70 (noon), $4.20 (midnight)
http://www.ny.com/transportation/taxis/

Car:

Toll for driving in city center:
London: $14
http://www.cclondon.com/

New York: $0.

Gas price per gallon
London: $7
http://www.yrl.co.uk/tony/fuel2/fuel2.html

Gas price per gallon
New York: $2.30
http://www.newyorkgasprices.com/

One hour, on street, metered parking:
New York: $2.50
http://www.parkingticket.com/about/press/release_040403.asp

London: $7 per hour
http://www.londontown.com/London/Public_Transport

Subway:

Single peak hour subway/tube ride within center:

London: $3.45, zone 1 ($4, zones 1-2)
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2005/single/tube.shtml

“Irwindale, a 9.5-square-mile moonscape of open-face gravel pits and industrial waste 26 miles east of Los Angeles.”

Lets face it, NY is much better than Irwindale.

Take, for example, the Guggenheim, its much better than the Irwindale museum of Yes album covers and the menu at Chucky Cheese just doesn’t compare to Alain Ducasse.

Fatty SoCal Town Eats 350,000 Big Macs a Year

I’m not actually sure why I am giving this the oxygen of publicity, however, on the subject of the little guys v. big meanies -

I’m referring of course to the trumped up SF v. NY debate where an extremely pleasant seaside town of less than 1M people is pitted against the arch metropolis of Gotham city. Even NY v. Chicago would be stretching it.

Nick Denton writes:

“I’ve always thought that San Francisco would be a perfect city if it was inhabited entirely by New Yorkers.”

WHAT! (Come on Nick its obvious that you’re only trying to stir up shit for clicks).

The sight of sweating hoards of black-clad PR flaks pounding up Mt. Tam in Manolo Blahniks would almost be worth it.

nickdenton.org: Friscophobia