I find the comments from Torontonians funny in this video.
Only if the video showed Buffalo or Atlanta (which essentially has a cross-shaped subway system) will Torontonians begin to appreciate the TTC.
The art of truth is the absence of absolutes.
Most transit systems, as with most things in life are neither perfect, nor terrible, not provably the best or the worst.
That said, if one is measuring service frequency, or service integration the TTC is no worse than the #2 system in the U.S. and Canada. A comparison to NYC is more complex, with vastly more stations and some 24-hour subway service, but greater service reliability issues, lower subway frequency, and less service integration. We might all envy the extent of their subway system, but not necessarily their commute experience.
For all of that, as noted in the post above, no one, anywhere, in any fashion should compare themselves w/their laggards, or even their peers.
You don't get better at anything by saying 'but I'm better than so and so...........or as good as the average'.
Its quite right, and quite normal, to compare one's self, one's transit system, school, long-term care home, public park, or business to someone, some place, that does it better.
Better 'overall' is to a great degree a subjective call. It has to be weighed with things like customer-facing price, government-facing price (if applicable); and the relative priority in which you hold a particular service.
However, where one can measure individual characteristics such as travel time per km, wait time for a vehicle, accessibility, reliability, or the offer of certain amenities (washrooms, air conditioning etc.), a list can be created which gives one a sense
of the relative offer of one place to another.
In that context, it makes sense for many U.S. systems to be compared with Toronto; while Toronto should look to Hong Kong, to Singapore, to Paris or Stockholm or Moscow asking about which areas we come up short in; and which upgrades to prioritize.
