2 ms·

The big question with all these ideas is how to pay for it? Economically it doesn't work in majority of the US. Some big cities might be able to pull it off -

by Alupis 7y ago

The big question with all these ideas is how to pay for it? Economically it doesn't work in majority of the US. Some big cities might be able to pull it off - but even those often run at a loss and are subsidized by the city. How does a small suburban area afford trains going all over?

bluGill 7y ago
How does a small suburban area afford roads going all over? Building rail is about the same cost as roads, and can be cheaper if we put as much effort into making tools for building it as we do roads today. Trains are more expensive than cars, but given they carry more people and last longer the cost per person is less than our current costs for cars per person. There are also mass production efficiencies that have the potential to bring the cost of a train down significantly if only we had demand for more. Note that subsidies for transit also apply to local roads. Each area is different, but in many cases gas tax doesn't reach the city and the roads are all paid for from other taxes. The problem is getting there. It is to predict how it would work out if we there today (see my assumptions above, I think they are reasonable but you might disagree and that will of course change what you come up with). However getting there is hard. Big cities are already making efforts to get there, but they are hampered because there is a complete lack of cost control and so trains cost way more than they should for no obvious reason. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2016/01/31/why-costs-matter/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/2016/01/31/why-costs-matt... has some good information (read his other blog posts for even more data) Of course in the end all trains don't make sense in the first place. Cars and trucks are flexible and so there will always be need for them. Farmers and construction workers need to get their supplies to places without infrastructure, while dirt and gravel roads are enough. Even baring that, the flexibility of a personal car means that the end of the personal car implies the complete end of modern civilization (your new job is manual labor: running a hoe)

by Alupis 7y ago

bluGill 7y ago

How does a small suburban area afford roads going all over? Building rail is about the same cost as roads, and can be cheaper if we put as much effort into making tools for building it as we do roads today. Trains are more expensive than cars, but given they carry more people and last longer the cost per person is less than our current costs for cars per person. There are also mass production efficiencies that have the potential to bring the cost of a train down significantly if only we had demand for more. Note that subsidies for transit also apply to local roads. Each area is different, but in many cases gas tax doesn't reach the city and the roads are all paid for from other taxes. The problem is getting there. It is to predict how it would work out if we there today (see my assumptions above, I think they are reasonable but you might disagree and that will of course change what you come up with). However getting there is hard. Big cities are already making efforts to get there, but they are hampered because there is a complete lack of cost control and so trains cost way more than they should for no obvious reason. https://pedestrianobservations.com/2016/01/31/why-costs-matter/ https://pedestrianobservations.com/2016/01/31/why-costs-matt... has some good information (read his other blog posts for even more data) Of course in the end all trains don't make sense in the first place. Cars and trucks are flexible and so there will always be need for them. Farmers and construction workers need to get their supplies to places without infrastructure, while dirt and gravel roads are enough. Even baring that, the flexibility of a personal car means that the end of the personal car implies the complete end of modern civilization (your new job is manual labor: running a hoe)