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Things Russia Has That The United States Needs More Of Gigantic monuments and statues. Huge, beautiful cathedrals. Ornate bridges. Enormous columns. Gilded palaces. Fast, cheap, efficient public transportation. Really little kids playing the accordion. Bright, orange-colored blini shops. Majestic train terminals. (Forgot this the first time through) Under-street pedestrian crossings. Rather than attempt to have crosswalks at busy intersections, Moscow and Saint Petersburg have remarkable underground street crossings. Some of them are in conjunction with Metro stations, others are standalone. This benefits both the pedestrians, who don’t get hit by cars and get their shopping done while crossing the street, and drivers, who don’t have to worry about pedestrians at big intersections. Most of the crossings also have mini-malls in them, where enterpreneurs have tiny booths built into the walls of the tunnels from which they sell any manner of items, such as kitchen gadgets, DVD’s and CD’s, food, clothing, etc. Amazing.

Things The United States Has That Russia Needs More Of Traffic laws (and/or enforcement of traffic laws). Air pollution laws. Smoking laws. Taco Bells.