Originally Posted By: hatt
Originally Posted By: Wurlitzer
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: Wurlitzer
Yes, the American mindset will be the biggest barrier to overcome. We can only hope that we accommodate our growing population with a proven method. We don't want to wake up in decades future and look up at our Beijingish pollution, while we are stuck in traffic on a 10 lane highway that already needs to be rebuilt into a 12 lane, on our 75 minute commute across the wasteful urban sprawl, and say "hey, couldn't we just have spent all this money on more sensible infrastructure years ago and avoided all this?".
It's a nice theory but the reality is that there's no appetite for public transportation from the government. That would involve raising taxes. It's very hard to do any kind of infrastructure project. The facts that the entire infrastructure of the country is slowly falling apart should clue you in that the great dream of some efficient public transit is just a pipe dream.
It's amazing the things the richest nation on earth "can't afford". Our taxes need to be reconsidered: who gets taxed, how much, and where those taxes go.
Since we're rich we don't have to ride buses and trains. We use private vehicles. The infrastructure around here isn't falling apart. [censored] states are a different story.
In America buses and trains are considered transportation for the low-income so I understand why you think that they are a step down from the basically cars-only system that most of America currently has. I know that in Asheville NC (which is developing a major traffic problem) the trains all haul freight and the buses are very unreliable and only run during the day. But a bus/bike/train system on-par with western Europe's is not something to be looked down upon, nor is it low-income transportation over there. They still own cars over there as well, nice ones.
Originally Posted By: Wurlitzer
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: Wurlitzer
Yes, the American mindset will be the biggest barrier to overcome. We can only hope that we accommodate our growing population with a proven method. We don't want to wake up in decades future and look up at our Beijingish pollution, while we are stuck in traffic on a 10 lane highway that already needs to be rebuilt into a 12 lane, on our 75 minute commute across the wasteful urban sprawl, and say "hey, couldn't we just have spent all this money on more sensible infrastructure years ago and avoided all this?".
It's a nice theory but the reality is that there's no appetite for public transportation from the government. That would involve raising taxes. It's very hard to do any kind of infrastructure project. The facts that the entire infrastructure of the country is slowly falling apart should clue you in that the great dream of some efficient public transit is just a pipe dream.
It's amazing the things the richest nation on earth "can't afford". Our taxes need to be reconsidered: who gets taxed, how much, and where those taxes go.
Since we're rich we don't have to ride buses and trains. We use private vehicles. The infrastructure around here isn't falling apart. [censored] states are a different story.
In America buses and trains are considered transportation for the low-income so I understand why you think that they are a step down from the basically cars-only system that most of America currently has. I know that in Asheville NC (which is developing a major traffic problem) the trains all haul freight and the buses are very unreliable and only run during the day. But a bus/bike/train system on-par with western Europe's is not something to be looked down upon, nor is it low-income transportation over there. They still own cars over there as well, nice ones.