A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Fuck Maglev.
Regular ass trains on steel tracks can go >200mph if built to spec. Suuuure, maglev can go even faster. But regular ass trains on steel tracks can actually be build on a realistic budget. Like in theory atleast. But before the US does something this sane they're gonna nuke themselves. idk
Maglev isn't even more expensive. High speed rails that are built "to spec" for 400 km/h are expensive as fuck. Trains are usually shorter but frequency is higher, so per passenger it roughly evens out.
The real deal breaker is the lack of compatibility. Can't ever run a maglev train on legacy rail while your high speed train can use the existing system to bridge gaps in the high speed network.
also, monorails of any sort are harder to switch than dual-rail lines, making the networks less flexible.
Well sir, there's nothing on Earth like a genuine, bona-fide, electrified, six-car monorail!
I don’t know why you would want compatibility. The Shinkansen is also always on their own track. Air planes aren’t compatible with train tracks either, so if you look at it more from a perspective of what they’re trying to replace I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.
I think it’s also mainly the start up and build costs, I think the wear of the rails of high speed trains on wheels is very costly
Regular ass train gang. Let's stop trying to reinvent something that already works way better than whatever half ass bullshit you thought about for a couple hours.
Trams for short distance, metro for medium, trains for long and high-speed for very long.
It's trains all the way down.
We need a rail line that is strictly for commuters. Right now the rails are owned by freight companies so they prioritize freight over people. Yes we do have the infrastructure to initiate high speed rails, but those rails are used for objects not people.
Imagine how this would disempower landlords if you could commute to either of those cities from anywhere between them.
Car dependency is about power, it's about keeping workers vulnerable and reliant on constant employment to participate in society. The one thing the US and Canada has over other imperial powers is the obscene amount of space each state has at its disposal within the metropole with which to construct what really is an exceptional form of oppression. It's important to recognize that when you're talking about ending car dependency, this is an existential threat to either power, and they will treat it in kind.
There is convenience in the ineptitude of neoliberal politics in state-planning and infrastructure, which most people attribute as the cause of this development, but it's crucial to remember that suburban sprawl and car dependency were state projects by the US and Canada in very much they same way neoliberal privatization is.
America is just a collection of subscription fees you must pay in order to survive. You need a car, rent, groceries, and bills at the bare minimum so you must have a job or you will die in the street.
Yes, and it's important to identify why that happens and how it functions, not satisfy ourselves with the certainty that it is bad, or unjust, or unreasonable; which many of these posts end up doing.
The US is the way it is because that is what settler-colonialism and capitalism require to continue. Even when there were periods of "reform," such as the labour and state policies of the welfare liberal era in the 1930s-40s (which is how suburbanism and car dependency came about), or the civil rights movements of the mid- to late-twentieth century (which is how neoliberalism and the liberal appropriation of social justice was achieved), victories in reform are inevitably eroded by these fundamental imperatives.
California: Hang on, we got another rich land owner suing us because the rail path would cut through their lucrative almond orchard that they pump ground water to use for flood irrigation because fuck you.
Hold on we have this super genius that says mood lit tunnels with Tesla's in would be even cheaper and faster!
There's no profit in building sensible infrastructure.
Only profit in endless wars against brown people
There's lots of profit in building infrastructure. There's little profit in finishing it. That's why in US or UK you get endless construction projects that cost billions but never deliver anything useful.
More like three and a half hours if you want an actually usefull line that stops.at places where people wanna stop at and you add the time needed to accelerate and decelerate but yeah. Also thats calculating with 500kmh which is very much cutting edge and constructing a line like that takes decades BUT that doesnt mean such investments arent worth it and also just fixing transport within a city is already worth it.
China and Japan seem to have figured this shit out. How come the largest economy in the world can't? Pissed about with Elon and his Hyperloop which would be too expensive for any regular person (extreme maintenance costs) and can't move as many people (very limited size). And it didn't even work! Meanwhile elsewhere the train wasn't being reinvented, but improved, and it's actually functional.
Also, you can have high speed transit between two major stations, then take local transit to your specific destination. That's what central stations are supposed to be for.
Musk has openly admitted he propped Hyperloop for the sole purpose of stopping California to build a high speed train. He never intended to deliver anything.
three and a half hours if you want an actually usefull line that stops.at places where people wanna stop at
You can run a multi-stop and an express train concurrently.
A thing a lot of people don't understand about high speed rail is that it needs to be very straight and very flat. Draw a straight line from those two cities and count the number of places it goes through, the different elevations and figure out how you'd bulldoze through it all.
China seems to have figured it out in their mountainous regions. Some of the lines are 90% tunnel+raised rails. And as an American we should talk about how China is roughly the same size as America. The excuse well has run dry.
I have the utmost confidence in the TSAs ability to make rail stations just as bad as airports.
Oh you complain now, but as soon as someone hijacks a train and steers it off course into a building, you’ll be begging TSA to grope you before letting you cram yourself into a reasonably spacious train seat that a public entity runs and has no reason to maximize the number of bodies it can cram into one area to create more shareholder value.
(I’m not crying you are……..)
These trains would run at capacity all the time, being full of New Yorkers going to Chicago to get good pizza and immediately returning.
New Yorkers: 😠
Italians: 😠
Hawaians: 🍍
Everyone else: 😠 (for some reason everybody looks very invested in the pizza debate)
I like your boldness anyway
Meanwhile, Musk is at it again, pitching a hyperloop tunnel to link Austin and San Antonio. Nevermind that it’s a ton of limestone and aquifers along that route.
Since this is directed at the American people asking why they don't have or want this, they do. They have for decades. Just as an example look at the history of high speed rail in Florida. It was put to a public vote on the ballot at least once, overwhelming voted for, and the politicians said (laughingly)... "Oh no. No, we can't afford to do the will of the people. Sorry." Then spent the same amount elsewhere probably. So, that's why.
Florida passed it once, under Jeb Bush, who was against it, and simply said No. The voters wanted it bad enough that they voted on it again, and passed it with wide bipartisan support, because it was a no-brainer. Private funds were going to build it, and cover all construction overruns. Then they would operate it for a decade, to get it running, then once it had 10 years of experience under its belt, it would be handed over the state to run, presumably at a profit by then. It would have been the root of a high speed rail system that would run up the east coast, and then start spreading west. It wasn't going to cost the taxpayers a penny, and everybody wanted it, which is why it passed TWICE!
Jeb was dragging his feet, and then Convicted Criminal Rick Scott got elected, and immediately killed it, despite NEVER mentioning in his campaign a single time. It outraged people so badly, that there was talk of a recall, but it turns out the Florida legislature had passed a law prohibiting recalls, after Jeb Bush helped his brother cheat his way into the presidency in 2000. He must have been worried that the Democrats would come after him for cheating, but he vastly overestimated the Democrats courage.
So Convicted Criminal Rick Scott got elected, and killed the high speed rail deal, but by the end of his second term, he allowed a new normal speed rail line between Miami and Orlando that nobody uses, because why would they?
Oh, and by the way, Convicted Criminal Rock Scott had a 3% investment stake in the NEW rail line. He didn't have any investment in the one he killed, that everybody wanted. Which explains everything you need to know about Convicted Criminal Rick Scott, who will be running for president in 2028. He wants to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and ALL social safety nets, and every word he says is a lie, his ONLY priority is using his office to increase his net worth, he LOVES insider trading and loudly opposes any restrictions on it, and every word he says is a lie.
Edit: And despite all of his condemnations of "career politicians," he's made every penny of his fortune off the government, including a massive Medicaid fraud scheme that formed the foundation of his fortune.
Before that, he was in the Navy, and after that he was a politician, which he has done since 2011, when he bought the Florida governor's office. Nothing like starting at the top.
He also runs on Term Limits, of course, they all do.
We just foot the bills, we don't select the items.
But how else am I going to show off my $60k+ 4x4 with $12k+ ~~useless junk~~ modifications during my once-a-year trip to a national park?
This is doable, we just have to convince our leaders is bad for the environment, will hurt brown people, will get them filthy rich and also paint them fake gold and put Drumpfs name on each train
So yea, no,
Easy, we're idiots.
Yikes this comment section got flooded by car brains making some wild fucking claims.
But, but, but, trains are communism!
Seriously, though, far too many Americans still tie their identity to their vehicle. The stupid notion of rugged American individualism has really held the country back.
There are plenty of other things, but I'm just pointing out this one.
