this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
94 points (97.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26903 readers
1581 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 64 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (6 children)

Actual high speed rail around North America. Every major metropolitan area connected to minimum 150mph speeds.

All of the idiots who joke and make fun of CHSR and Brightline have never truly seen an actual rail system in practice. I read the Facebook comments, they're all the same. "It would never work here", "We're too big", "Flights would be faster", "I just like to drive", blah blah blah. The fact is that they've never been outside of the country (and most of them outside of their immediate state area) to ever see what it's actually like, and have never seen what we're desperately missing here in America.

Oh and the worst of the complaints, the absolute worst - "It's a waste of money". Says Darrel, the guy who has done zero research about rail beyond what conservative pundits have told him, and has absolutely zero idea how much we piss away on highways every year. How much is that new lane on the local freeway costing? No freaking idea do you. But California HSR, they know to the penny how much that's costing. (You don't even have to know which freeway I'm talking about, because I know there's also a freeway near you who is getting yet another lane, everyone in the country has a freeway getting another lane.) Rail though? Oh no.. the costs!

I firmly believe this would help ease a lot of the nation's major problems. Probably not solve, but ease some of them.

  • Climate Change (obviously)
  • Some of the divide this nation is feeling (because it'd be easier to travel around and actually see)
    • for example, I live in Seattle, there are a lot of conservatives living just 200 miles away who never come because it's "too far" and we're "constantly having violent protests". Well come and see for yourself then. Take a day trip.
  • Housing Crisis (immediately nearby cities and towns become commutable)
    • This would also help with income inequality a bit, because all of a sudden you can again commute much farther
  • We waste so much land due to parking and driving, relieving that a bit could revitalize downtowns as people would pick up and leave the train in urban centers, renewing development downtown.

This list goes on

How we move around is such a huge part of our daily lives. Most people spend hours a day in their car, burning gas, driving around getting to work, stores, errands, schools, etc. We have made it so damn difficult on ourselves just to move around, and I'm sick of hearing the regurgitated excuses why it "would never work" here.

A couple good videos if you're curious.

Alan Fisher, the Armchair Urbanist explains how rail gets such scrutiny while roads get a pass

ClimateTown, How parking (and roads) are killing our towns

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

If I were American this would be my absolute priority too. I don't like driving too much but love being able to get everywhere I want to by train. I don't even own a car.

load more comments (5 replies)