this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
109 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37717 readers
367 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Either the Americans have very weird ideas about transportation or they're completely controlled by auto companies. I don't understand how they think that cars or this stupidloop is better than high speed rail. Traveling by train is far more relaxing, way less infuriating and leaves time for you to do something else meaningful. US is probably the only country that went back on rail transport. Every other country is taking it as far as they possibly can.
Consider both: we know the auto companies controlled the populace by destroying any choice. We also know that public transit is looked on as a plebes travel mode ripe for gutting at every turn so the rich (and those who are gonna be rich any day now) can benefit.
I don't know for other countries, but Germany (that has a decent high-speed rail network, to be fair) had a rail network of almost 55,000 km in the 50s and less than 40,000 today. More than 300 train stations have been closed since the year 2000 alone.
EDIT: sources:
https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/bahn-schienennetz-deutschland-1835-bis-heute/
https://www.allianz-pro-schiene.de/themen/aktuell/336-bahnhoefe-seit-2000-stillgelegt/
And high-speed trains are chronically late... :/
Come on, almost two thirds of DB Fernverkehr's trains are punctual (if you accept DB's definition of punctuality, which allows six minutes of delay to still be counted as punctual).
This is Canada erasure.
And Australia. Frankly the whole anglosphere. Large parts of Asia, too. Vietnam's public transport is abysmal, and as the country imports more and more cars (over the motorbikes the country has historically been famous for) traffic is becoming absolutely insane.
Saigon has been building a metro since 2013 and still doesn't have even a single line in operation. (That's in no small part thanks to high levels of governmental corruption, rather than the same kind of car dependency in the west, but it comes down to a similar thing: money.)
I walk an extra half hour so I can take the train instead of the bus for my morning commute. It’s worth it.