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It won’t take a century if there’s political will. China built a network larger than the rest of the world combined in less than 20 years. Yes, you heard that r
by dangus 3y ago
It won’t take a century if there’s political will. China built a network larger than the rest of the world combined in less than 20 years. Yes, you heard that right, in 2007 there was only one high speed passenger rail service in the entire country.
- kredd 3y agoI don’t like being a defeatist, but being anti-public transit, infrastructure investments, and inability to build public infrastructure is very well ingrained into American culture at this point. Countries like China and India call pull it off because government makes the decision for people. Would be a political suicide for any level of government to get up and say “we will take over the land as we see it useful and build useful shit”. And I don’t even want to talk how in North America, our easiest path would be to hire people who can build that stuff very well (engineers from the said countries), which also won’t sell well with the public. Admittedly I live in Canada, and in my city we have a fairly functional subway and bus system. But nowhere near as good as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taiwan and etc. It’s such a bummer every time I visit those countries and see how they’re ran, and then travel somewhere like California or Washington to see the opposite when it comes to transit. I know not everything is the best, but I also don’t know how we can fix this problem when majority of people are against the fix. Oh well, sorry for the rant.
- shiroiuma 3y ago>Countries like China and India call pull it off because government makes the decision for people India is a democracy, as is Japan where public transit is fantastic. Many European countries also have very good transit. The problem isn't the type of government, it's the people and culture political will. Americans just don't want public transit enough to build and live in cities where it would work well. Not driving everywhere in a car is unthinkable to most Americans.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI’ve ridden Chinese HSR trains…and I still needed to take a taxi to get to Beijing South and whatever was on the other end of my trip.
- throwaway2037 3y agoAgree. The location of Chinese HSR stations is terrible. Japan's are much more central.
- xvilka 3y agoThey all are usually reachable by subway. And subway network in Beijing is top notch.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoMost Beijing subways until recently were all loops, so you could get there via subway, but it would take a long time because it was a giant loop rather than being direct. They are top notch, I'm glad other people take them, but I'll take a taxi unless I need to get somewhere during rush hour. Especially getting to Beijing South in the morning with luggage, a taxi or hiring a car via didi is the best way to go. To get to Beijing south, how many transfers do you need to drag your luggage through? So let's see, from where I used to live with the lines in place now: I would need to drag my luggage to Tuanjiehu on line 10, take the loop around to jiaomenxi, and then take the line 4 up to beijing south. Or I could pay 50 kuai for a taxi from my apartment complex gate to the front door of the train station.
- throwaway2037 3y agoThe main Shanghai HSR station is 45-60 mins from the main business district. That is not convenient. In Japan, all the main HSR stations are incredibly convenient. Usually, walking distance from main business district. Also, Beijing is a huge city. So what if the "subway network is top notch". It is still frequently 45 mins more travel time on slow subway for final destination.
- dventimi 3y ago"...if there's political will." Well, there isn't political will. If you feel like trying to develop that political will, have at it.
- greiskul 3y agoYeah, getting political will for that in the US is probably a harder problem to solve them full on strong AI.