Yes! I always see those lovely stalls in Europe, where the door and walls go all the way to the floor and, if not to the ceiling, to several feet above anyone’s eye level, and you can still tell at a glance whether a stall is occupied, and I’m so envious!
ETA: also better bike infrastructure, including bike paths entirely separated from the road, and better places to lock your bike and stiffer criminal penalties for bike theft.
Until…
You lose or your phone is stolen!
…
& it canot be located!!!
Metric
Menus that list common allergens
Inexpensive trains that go to useful places
Inexpensive accommodations
Anywhere in Europe if a meal is listed at 20 euros, then 20 euros is what you actually pay. No tax and no tips. It is similar in Japan. I don’t know what genius decided that sales taxes should be added at the register. And don’t get me started on tipping. And I am fan of roundabouts too. And public toilets.
But if the government decides to change the sales tax, then business has the enormous problem of changing the prices on everything.
In Barcelona we had to put our key card in a holder in our room to turn on the lights and air conditioning, which meant that they were off when we left the room. I’ve seen it one place in the US, but it should be in more.
Beer or wine in McDonalds!
And for something I wish came back, Berlin, London and Paris have department stores with everything, just like department stores used to be here, not the feeble excuse of a department store we have now.
Yes, and the amount of angst that would cause is enormous pressure against the government upping the sales tax. Win!
Airport luggage checkin in the center of cities:
Hong Kong has this amazing system where they have airline checkin desks at the train station, downtown. You check your bags at the train station, and you ride the train to the airport without needing to carry your luggage. The bags are checked all the way to your destination so you don’t see them at the airport; you don’t see them until you arrive at your destination.
Shanghai has a maglev train from the airport to the city. I’ve taken it: It is fast.
Something I hope doesn’t catch on: Shanghai has full-on x-ray machines, just like at the airport, to enter the subway system.
The Paris Metro has so many stations that everywhere in the city is a short walk from one.
Correction: Shanghai Pudong Airport has a maglev train that takes 8 minutes to a distant suburb with a subway connection. It goes no-where near Shanghai proper.
Me, I’d like to see the general pan Asian practice of leaving outdoor shoes at the dwelling entry, and switching to barefoot/indoor shoes/indoor slippers. It is so much cleaner.
Hong Kong might be the only city I’ve ever been to where I would trust that system.
BTW, your Octopus (Metro) pass in Hong Kong can be used to buy things in many stores. Something else that I wish we had here.
Truth in pricing. The price they quote is the price you pay, including all taxes, fees, charges, tips.
Swiss International offers this in Switzerland as well.
Proper salaries for waiters so that tipping becomes something of an extra. In Switzerland, if the bill is 38 CHF, many people would just round up to 40 CHF. Takes less time and effort for everyone. Of course, in the last year, most people tip more. But it’s still on top of a decent salary.
Metric system
Get rid of anything smaller than 10 cents. Some countries in Europe use the 1 and 2 cent coins, some do not. Switzerland still allows a 5 cent coin, but it’s only used for buffets, food weighed at the grocery stores and gasoline.
Electric buses and trains with the ability for passengers to charge their phones, preferably with USB, so you don’t even need the country-specific plug.
And you never have to change trains more than once, to get anywhere in the city.
I most definitely can’t support the “every restaurant” hypothesis, in fact this is false:
http://www.restaurant-lecinq.com/ menus/la-carte-du-cinq/
but you occasionally do see a weight, e.g.
https://www.la-boucherie.fr/carte-et-plats/?open=les-viandes
so you know how big your steak is going to be.
At one buffet place near the train station in Bonn, the price per 100g was listed, you piled however much salad or whatever onto your plate, and they would weigh it at the cash register to compute the price.
I quite like the physical barriers between the bicycle lanes and automobile lanes in China. What I don’t like is that motor vehicles are still peeling down the bicycle lanes.
I have not tried it myself but I have been told by friends that the same system works well in Madrid from Atocha Train Station to Barajas Airport. Seems like a good idea to me too.
Hong Kong has this amazing system where they have airline checkin desks at the train station, downtown. You check your bags at the train station, and you ride the train to the airport without needing to carry your luggage.
That was once the thing for at least the predecessor airlines to British Airways in London, but that was before there was a rail link out to Heathrow, so they had their own buses.