When I was in Shanghai some years ago it felt as if it was being given to cars versus public transport which was a huge missed opportunity. I don’t claim however to have seen the whole city only being there for 4 or 5 days as a tourist (and as a native NYC resident I know how misleading this can be). Was this impression correct?
From what I've seen, so many people really wanted a car and many who got one over the last 15 years never looked back at public transit. The economics are sort of balancing out though with tiered license plates. It's over USD $10,000 for a plate that lets you enter the city center, versus virtually free for a suburban plate.
Did you even try the subway network? That's how most people get around in Shanghai and it's top notch and definitely not a missed opportunity. Every large city will need a road network as well as a public transit, the difference is the percentage of people taking each.
