3 ms·

It'd be even nicer to have investments in public transport infrastructure to allow large population centers to not depend on cars for the majority of A to B tri

by piva00 4y ago

It'd be even nicer to have investments in public transport infrastructure to allow large population centers to not depend on cars for the majority of A to B trips. The problems of last mile train stations in the US are completely self-inflicted, to cater for the current status quo of car-centric development, you don't need massive parking lots in central train stations for the majority of big population centres in Europe.

bsder 4y ago
> It'd be even nicer to have investments in public transport infrastructure to allow large population centers to not depend on cars for the majority of A to B trips. Your suggestion requires that we demolish and redo entire swathes of cities before we would gain any benefits. My suggestion can be implemented piecemeal on specific corridors and start gaining benefits immediately. Path dependence is a thing. Political will is finite with short time horizons. Something which can be implemented piecemeal is less optimal but more likely to gain enough momentum to deliver real benefits.
- piva00 4y ago
  That's just kicking the can further down than what's been already kicked. If the only matter for political will is short-term gains then there's absolutely no possibility of revamping decrepit and inadequate structures such as the lack of public transportation in the US. At some point it'll be needed to do it, the longer the wait the more painful it will become. As you pointed out, it's already pretty fucking painful to achieve it, introducing new features unto an inadequate system is just compounding the issues in the long-term for just a small short-term gain, it's not really smart to do it. Instead of starting to properly address the issue of transportation at scale, your suggestion will just add a component of "smartness" to a system that is already overloaded and definitely not good for society. Car-dependency is not a net positive. I'm not against people using and having cars but depending on them for transportation between large population centres is an absurd waste of resources for a society... Simple and easy solutions have a tendency to create even larger problems, it's unfortunate there's no political will in the USA to revamp its transportation system because it's clear to not be the most efficient way for your society to move around.

by piva00 4y ago

bsder 4y ago

> It'd be even nicer to have investments in public transport infrastructure to allow large population centers to not depend on cars for the majority of A to B trips. Your suggestion requires that we demolish and redo entire swathes of cities before we would gain any benefits. My suggestion can be implemented piecemeal on specific corridors and start gaining benefits immediately. Path dependence is a thing. Political will is finite with short time horizons. Something which can be implemented piecemeal is less optimal but more likely to gain enough momentum to deliver real benefits.

piva00 4y ago
That's just kicking the can further down than what's been already kicked. If the only matter for political will is short-term gains then there's absolutely no possibility of revamping decrepit and inadequate structures such as the lack of public transportation in the US. At some point it'll be needed to do it, the longer the wait the more painful it will become. As you pointed out, it's already pretty fucking painful to achieve it, introducing new features unto an inadequate system is just compounding the issues in the long-term for just a small short-term gain, it's not really smart to do it. Instead of starting to properly address the issue of transportation at scale, your suggestion will just add a component of "smartness" to a system that is already overloaded and definitely not good for society. Car-dependency is not a net positive. I'm not against people using and having cars but depending on them for transportation between large population centres is an absurd waste of resources for a society... Simple and easy solutions have a tendency to create even larger problems, it's unfortunate there's no political will in the USA to revamp its transportation system because it's clear to not be the most efficient way for your society to move around.