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I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but I then realized why your comment doesn’t make any sense - you’re effectively arguing “if I could master-plan societ

by dfee 9y ago

I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but I then realized why your comment doesn’t make any sense - you’re effectively arguing “if I could master-plan society and the economy for a while, this is how I’d decree it to be.” Maybe some people don’t want to live in dense urban areas, maybe they don’t want to ride on a rail, maybe they want privacy. But looking out the window, I can say American society has soundly rejected the rail as the ultimate solution. Short of understanding your perspective as a longing personal desire for trains, your conclusion is so far removed from reality that it’s nonsense.

dnautics 9y ago
I wouldn't say society has rejected the rail in America, but rather that the political structure has rejected the rail. There's a dominant paradigm in public transport that it must be run by the government (which ironically is somewhat counter to the broader american ethos). Yet there are places like Singapore where the public transport is run via (in the past fully, but currently partially) for-profit, publically traded companies, where the QOS is far higher than the US, and the service is markedly cheaper, and I would say, generally more accessible than it is in the US. There would be considerable US pushback against such a system, sadly.
zanny 9y ago
How can you reject something you never had or used? Almost nobody alive in the US today has ever engaged with general commuter rail. Trains as a common mode of transit died off with the rise of cars and planes post WW1 and had them near-eradicated post WW2. You can't say people reject something they don't even know is a possibility.
- tnorthcutt 9y ago
  I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I agree with your comment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
derefr 9y ago
> maybe they want privacy Every sci-fi movie of the last 50 years has solved that problem: you don't use trains; you put the cars on the rails (by grouping them together into roller-coaster-looking setups.) > maybe they don’t want to ride on a rail Same here: cars on rails can, in most conceptions, signal to the rail system to switch them onto an offramp that dumps them back onto a road. Basically, here, "rails" are serving as safer replacements for highways. Every road that isn't a highway would still be a road. You're just enabling people to, effectively, "have their car take the train", rather than having to leave their car at the train's parking lot.
- gt_ 9y ago
  The roller coaster setup seems so feasible. What are we waiting for? I guess the obvious problem is that it would require simultaneously modding both private vehicles and public infrastructure at impossible scale. It seems like such an obvious design end but implementation would require communism :/.
pizza 9y ago
Maybe American developers have rejected the rail, but I don't think American passengers have.
gt_ 9y ago
>But looking out the window, I can say American society has soundly rejected the rail as the ultimate solution. “Soundly”? If you mean in the way a child “soundly” rejects vegetables, maybe. But, the American public has never had this conversation. Capitalism and it’s ensuing cultural affects had it for them.
john_teller02 9y ago
You are stupid and what you say is utterly nonsense. You don't speak for me or every Tom Ahmed Asok Yun in USA. So F off.

by dfee 9y ago

dnautics 9y ago

I wouldn't say society has rejected the rail in America, but rather that the political structure has rejected the rail. There's a dominant paradigm in public transport that it must be run by the government (which ironically is somewhat counter to the broader american ethos). Yet there are places like Singapore where the public transport is run via (in the past fully, but currently partially) for-profit, publically traded companies, where the QOS is far higher than the US, and the service is markedly cheaper, and I would say, generally more accessible than it is in the US. There would be considerable US pushback against such a system, sadly.

zanny 9y ago

How can you reject something you never had or used? Almost nobody alive in the US today has ever engaged with general commuter rail. Trains as a common mode of transit died off with the rise of cars and planes post WW1 and had them near-eradicated post WW2. You can't say people reject something they don't even know is a possibility.

tnorthcutt 9y ago
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I agree with your comment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

derefr 9y ago

> maybe they want privacy Every sci-fi movie of the last 50 years has solved that problem: you don't use trains; you put the cars on the rails (by grouping them together into roller-coaster-looking setups.) > maybe they don’t want to ride on a rail Same here: cars on rails can, in most conceptions, signal to the rail system to switch them onto an offramp that dumps them back onto a road. Basically, here, "rails" are serving as safer replacements for highways. Every road that isn't a highway would still be a road. You're just enabling people to, effectively, "have their car take the train", rather than having to leave their car at the train's parking lot.

gt_ 9y ago
The roller coaster setup seems so feasible. What are we waiting for? I guess the obvious problem is that it would require simultaneously modding both private vehicles and public infrastructure at impossible scale. It seems like such an obvious design end but implementation would require communism :/.

pizza 9y ago

Maybe American developers have rejected the rail, but I don't think American passengers have.

gt_ 9y ago

>But looking out the window, I can say American society has soundly rejected the rail as the ultimate solution. “Soundly”? If you mean in the way a child “soundly” rejects vegetables, maybe. But, the American public has never had this conversation. Capitalism and it’s ensuing cultural affects had it for them.

john_teller02 9y ago

You are stupid and what you say is utterly nonsense. You don't speak for me or every Tom Ahmed Asok Yun in USA. So F off.