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better yet, don't build any rail for passenger travel. let us instead engineer changes to our roadways to allow for self driving cars to occur sooner and safer.
by Shivetya 10y ago
better yet, don't build any rail for passenger travel. let us instead engineer changes to our roadways to allow for self driving cars to occur sooner and safer. only a few countries in the world have more than 10% of passenger miles by rail.
heavy rail is just too damn expensive for what it provides and there are what, two non subsidized systems out there? plus hundreds of billions in backlogged maintenance to many rail systems, not even counting the rail car maintenance that has been put off.
- moultano 10y agoIsn't rail inherently more energy efficient due to the rigid wheels even without the economies of multipassenger vehicles?
- wcummings 10y agoMore space efficient.
- geezerjay 10y agoRail is efficient due to the low slopes that are required by the steel-on-steel friction, required to accelerate/brake through the wheel/rail interaction. And yes, the only mode of transportation that is cheaper than rail with regards to cost per tonnage is sea transport. In passanger transportation, it really depends on the distances and on the speed of transportation. People tend to pay a premium for point-to-point speed, and although airway transportation is unbeatable in that regard the time to get to the nearest airport and required to board end up adding a travel time penalty between 1 and 2 hour. This means that high-speed rail tends to be, by far, the best mode of transportation between destinations that are distanced up to around 400km.
- honkhonkpants 10y agoHow many non-subsidized road systems can you name?
- niftich 10y agoOff the top of my head, exactly one, the Dulles Greenway [1]. It's truly not a common occurrence. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_State_Route_267#Dulles_Greenway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_State_Route_267#Dulle...