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> 1. The suppressed demand is not for cars, it's for fast transportation This is moot. Yes, people demand fast transportation. Fast transportation in practice

> 1. The suppressed demand is not for cars, it's for fast transportation This is moot. Yes, people demand fast transportation. Fast transportation in practice means cars. In other words, people demand cars.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago
... or railways? Just got back from Tokyo and it didn't seem like anybody was demanding cars. North America seems to have a tremendous, gargantuan shortage of passenger rail, especially in comparison to how much land we dedicate to freeways.
- adrianN 3y ago
  To be fair, traffic in Tokyo is still pretty bad. However the city would definitely collapse if it weren’t for public transport
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- defrost 3y ago
  North America has had 50 years of focused effort from Koch's Americans for Prosperity and other similarly themed lobby groups spreading the word that public transport bad, individual FreeDumb coal rolling good. You'd almost think they profit from that message somehow. Luckily for transit enthusiasts, the Kochs have not always been successful, even in sprawling cities with a sizable Republican base. Phoenix, Arizona[1], successfully expanded its light rail system in the face of opposition from the organization’s state branch. [1] https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/08/25/phoenix-elections-transit-results-prop104/32283455/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/08/2... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activists-phoenix-ban-light-rail https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activis... https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-hate-public-transit-but-they-cant-always-stop-projects-in-their-tracks/ https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-hate-public-tran... https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/290/ https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/290/
dukeyukey 3y ago
> Yes, people demand fast transportation. Fast transportation in practice means cars. In other words, people demand cars. It's can be quite a lot faster to travel through populated areas via train than car. When you have 30k+ people per square mile, cars do not work. Trains work really well.
hughesjj 3y ago
> Fast transportation in practice means cars. I'm remorseful we made it such in practice. It didn't used to be that way, and I disagree that it should continue to be that way, for enough reasons that several popular YouTube channels with millions of viewers have already put in the effort to elucidate better than I could.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago

... or railways? Just got back from Tokyo and it didn't seem like anybody was demanding cars. North America seems to have a tremendous, gargantuan shortage of passenger rail, especially in comparison to how much land we dedicate to freeways.

adrianN 3y ago
To be fair, traffic in Tokyo is still pretty bad. However the city would definitely collapse if it weren’t for public transport
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
defrost 3y ago
North America has had 50 years of focused effort from Koch's Americans for Prosperity and other similarly themed lobby groups spreading the word that public transport bad, individual FreeDumb coal rolling good. You'd almost think they profit from that message somehow. Luckily for transit enthusiasts, the Kochs have not always been successful, even in sprawling cities with a sizable Republican base. Phoenix, Arizona[1], successfully expanded its light rail system in the face of opposition from the organization’s state branch. [1] https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/08/25/phoenix-elections-transit-results-prop104/32283455/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/08/2... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activists-phoenix-ban-light-rail https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/koch-activis... https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-hate-public-transit-but-they-cant-always-stop-projects-in-their-tracks/ https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-hate-public-tran... https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/290/ https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/290/

dukeyukey 3y ago

> Yes, people demand fast transportation. Fast transportation in practice means cars. In other words, people demand cars. It's can be quite a lot faster to travel through populated areas via train than car. When you have 30k+ people per square mile, cars do not work. Trains work really well.

hughesjj 3y ago

> Fast transportation in practice means cars. I'm remorseful we made it such in practice. It didn't used to be that way, and I disagree that it should continue to be that way, for enough reasons that several popular YouTube channels with millions of viewers have already put in the effort to elucidate better than I could.