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> Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. If tomorrow all of Europe and Asia was unified into one giant c

by deogeo 7y ago

> Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. If tomorrow all of Europe and Asia was unified into one giant continent-spanning country, would building mass transit there suddenly become more difficult?

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Yes because the number of stake holders that need to be satisfied and the number of edge cases would increase massively. Look at public transit systems throughout the west whenever they get expanded it's a long painful process because of all the new stakeholders being added and the new edge cases that get brought to light. Edit: Down-voted because inconvenient opinion or down-voted because wrong?
- deogeo 7y ago
  Perhaps because you don't state any mechanism on how the borders of a country increase the complexity of building a particular transit system - you just assert that it is so. Surely the number of stakeholders is more related to proximity, than borders? And China, Russia, and Canada are all large countries, but seem to manage decent mass transit. In sum, you provide a shaky, ad-hoc justification on why it's more difficult if the country is larger, and ignore counterexamples.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    >Perhaps because you don't state any mechanism on how the borders of a country increase the complexity of building a particular transit system This is HN. I shouldn't have to exhaustively spell out every detail like I'm on Reddit. I think that stating that a mass transit system that covers more people and more area leading to more stakeholders with more opinions who need to be pleased is more than enough. Presumably most people here have jobs where they work with other people and should be familiar with how increasing the number of stakeholders and/or coverage of a project increases technical and political complexity. Look at the history of public transit in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area for an example of political complexity scaling with the number of people and different jurisdictions covered. >China The land of "the subway is going here, don't like it then screw you". >Russia Which built out most of it's infrastructure back when it could operate similarly to China does today. I would think it would go without saying that having a government that unilaterally steamrolls any opposition to its public works projects is not a practical solution for mass transit in the west. >Canada In basically all of Canada you "need" a car. Most here would say that means they don't have good mass transit.
    - nojvek 7y ago
      Really love what they’ve done in Vancouver with the sky train.

by deogeo 7y ago

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

Yes because the number of stake holders that need to be satisfied and the number of edge cases would increase massively. Look at public transit systems throughout the west whenever they get expanded it's a long painful process because of all the new stakeholders being added and the new edge cases that get brought to light. Edit: Down-voted because inconvenient opinion or down-voted because wrong?

deogeo 7y ago
Perhaps because you don't state any mechanism on how the borders of a country increase the complexity of building a particular transit system - you just assert that it is so. Surely the number of stakeholders is more related to proximity, than borders? And China, Russia, and Canada are all large countries, but seem to manage decent mass transit. In sum, you provide a shaky, ad-hoc justification on why it's more difficult if the country is larger, and ignore counterexamples.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >Perhaps because you don't state any mechanism on how the borders of a country increase the complexity of building a particular transit system This is HN. I shouldn't have to exhaustively spell out every detail like I'm on Reddit. I think that stating that a mass transit system that covers more people and more area leading to more stakeholders with more opinions who need to be pleased is more than enough. Presumably most people here have jobs where they work with other people and should be familiar with how increasing the number of stakeholders and/or coverage of a project increases technical and political complexity. Look at the history of public transit in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area for an example of political complexity scaling with the number of people and different jurisdictions covered. >China The land of "the subway is going here, don't like it then screw you". >Russia Which built out most of it's infrastructure back when it could operate similarly to China does today. I would think it would go without saying that having a government that unilaterally steamrolls any opposition to its public works projects is not a practical solution for mass transit in the west. >Canada In basically all of Canada you "need" a car. Most here would say that means they don't have good mass transit.
  - nojvek 7y ago
    Really love what they’ve done in Vancouver with the sky train.