I think London is pretty good in that regard. The easiest way to travel is to use a contactless debit card (or phone, watch, credit card, etc). Just tap when prompted. Easy. I wish more cities did that, including the ones without entry barriers.

I’m in this picture and I don’t like it.

But, yeah, seems like such an obviously good idea and it works so well. Why can’t we do that?

When I was a kid we hosted two Trinidadians as part of an exchange in the Autumn and they’d never seen the leaves falling - they were worried that all the trees were dying off. This isn’t a “stupid foreigner” gag, it was probably just the thing that shocked them the most. They loved the trains and the narrowboats.

UK here. Various right-wing governments have discouraged and torn out almost all the public drinking fountains on the basis they were being used by the homeless (they were also being used by everyone else, but ignore that bit). I’ve not seen much of Italy outside Rome but the water fountains there are amazing; just a simple gesture of mutual respect between humans.

And it’s another example of “if you don’t want me to do it, don’t make it look so fun”.

Look, some bridges just do be like that.

Not OP, but can confirm we have hedgehogs and they are adorable.

Only some metro systems, like the tube, have third rail - standard railways have overhead power. But since a lot of metro trains run outside tunnels as well it’s not always obvious which rails are and aren’t electrified.

The whole thing with gates is because the UK train system is privately run for profit and so respecting human dignity is less important than making sure every individual adequately prostates themselves before the company decides to provide service. Even TfL, the council-owned operator of the tube, is forbidden by law from receiving any taxpayer subsidy so must run at a profit.