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> Road infrastructure costs a tiny fraction of rail infrastructure. Not necessarily. Rail is cheaper to maintain, and there is a huge opportunity cost of pavi
by com2kid 8y ago
> Road infrastructure costs a tiny fraction of rail infrastructure.
Not necessarily.
Rail is cheaper to maintain, and there is a huge opportunity cost of paving over a cities most valuable real estate to make roads.
The math on how large the streets would need to be in downtown Seattle to alleviate traffic end up with a giant % of downtown Seattle being torn down and paved over.
The Urbanist has a good article (https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/10/12/brt-is-not-cheaper-than-light-rail/ https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/10/12/brt-is-not-cheaper-th...) on why light rail is cheaper than a huge freeway.
Rail can also have multiple tracks, it costs more, but amortizes really well.
Not having to intermix pedestrian, bicycle, and cars is another huge win for, well constructed, rail projects. Autonomous cars still have to stop at crosswalks! In urban cores, stop lights seriously cut into average MPH for a trip, and start shifting things into favor of rail.