Most areas of the city are within a reasonable walking distance or short bus ride from one of the subway stations.

Size All lines of the subway use rubber-tired trains that travel on two flat roll ways, guided by a single central rail.

This system is unique among subways in Japan and the rest of the world; while other rubber-tired metro networks, including smaller automated guideway transit lines such as the Port Liner, use guide bars, the Sapporo system does not because the central rail makes them superfluous (similar to some rubber-tyred trams, such as the Translohr and Bombardier Guided Light Transit).

This rubber-tired system, combined with the heavy snowfall that Sapporo gets during winter, means that the system must be fully enclosed (including the southern elevated segment of the Namboku line); as a result, rolling stock cannot be fitted with air conditioning as it would otherwise trap hot air in the tunnels.

Donichika tickets (ドニチカキップ, donichika kippu, a portmanteau of 土日 donichi meaning "Saturday and Sunday" and 地下 chika meaning "underground") allow for unlimited one-day ride pass for the subway, and are only available on weekends and national holidays; they are sold for a lower price of 520 yen.

Due to their identical functionality, subway one-day cards are unavailable on days where Donichika tickets are sold.

[6] Commuter passes, able to be loaded onto SAPICA, offer unlimited rides between specific stations during their period of validity.

Both are available for one-month or three-month periods, and can be newly purchased from commuter pass sales offices located at major stations.