Transportation in Berlin:
The municipal transit authority of Berlin, the Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft (BVG), was created in 1928, "when the city's three private subway, streetcar, and bus companies were consolidated into one public system." (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). Berlin's public transportation system consists of the subway, rail network, fast regional trains, streetcars (or trams), buses, as well as ferries going over some waterways. Additionally, there is little pressure in Berlin to expand urban road capacity, because Berlin's autobahn network was "designed to route traffic around the city center, not into it" (Ladd, 2005, p. 49).

The subway, also called the Untergrundbahn, or the U-Bahn, first opened in 1902, and has 90 miles of track and 170 stations (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). The U-Bahn has nine lines and everyday, more than one million people use the U-Bahn. Trains run every 3-5 minutes (Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft, 2007). There is also a heavy rail network, called the Stadtschnellbahn, or the S-Bahn (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). Everyday, 1.3 million passengers travel with the S-Bahn. The network is made up of 332 kilometers and has 166 stations and 15 lines. The S-Bahn network has three core lines, a central East-West line (the Stadtbahn), a central North-South line (the Nord-Süd-Tunnel), and a circular Ringbahn which forms a circle around the inner city (S-Bahn Berlin, 2013). 

Berlin also has a network of fast regional trains (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). The regional trains are operated by the Deutsche Bahn, and destinations are within the Berlin-Brandenburg area, going beyond the range of the S-Bahn. In the 1960s, West Berlin dismantled its streetcars, but East Berlin kept this network, and the unified city still has streetcars in East Berlin (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). There are 187.7 kilometers of tram tracks in Berlin, and each day 560,000 passengers ride the tram (Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft, 2013). 

Berlin is similar to Los Angeles in its vastness. It makes up 344 square miles, and is too large to have subway or rail stops in walking distance from every location. Here buses fill a gap, and the city has 151 bus lines, with double-decker buses on the busiest routes. Furthermore, service hours in Berlin are extended, and "Berlin, a city where the bars and dance clubs never close, also claims to have the best night bus service in Europe, and in recent years most subway lines have begun running all night on weekends" (Ladd, 2005, p. 48). By having longer hours, public transportation becomes more attractive, allowing for more flexibility in terms of traveling. Additionally, "Sixty miles of special bus lanes have been established, along with some 500 miles of designated bicycle lanes. Most trains now permit riders to bring their bikes along, and multimodal bike-rail commutes and excursions have become...common (Ladd, 2005, p. 49). Through the designation of bike and bus lanes, public transportation becomes more attractive as there is less competition from other cars along the journey. Furthermore, by allowing for bike-rail commutes, riders are able to be more flexible and choose the routes that work best for them. 
There is also polarized political debate surrounding the issue of public transportation, and proposals to make further additions to the current transit system in Berlin are controversial for all involved. "The free market-oriented Free Democratic Party criticizes the city's leftist government for harming the economy by "strangling auto traffic," while the Greens...complain that the municipal government's policies remain too pro-car (Ladd, 2005, p. 49). However, both parties agree that the transit authority can be made more efficient, such as by limiting controversially high executive salaries (Ladd, 2005, p. 49).