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> The US is a huge country with a lot of empty space. China has the same problem... they simply made it a priority to build the infrastructure. There is nothi

> The US is a huge country with a lot of empty space. China has the same problem... they simply made it a priority to build the infrastructure. There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> China has the same problem China has almost four times the population density of America’s (146 per square kilometre to 37).
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  It gets even better when 94% of China's population lives in 43% of the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line The USA is a bit better, 25% live in the western half (mostly on the west coast though).
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  This is a pretty simple consequence of the facts that it has four times the population and is exactly the same size.
cmelbye 3y ago
I genuinely wonder whether such a thing is possible without a single centralized political party and severely limited avenues to disagree with the plan.
skrtskrt 3y ago
> There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing Well what's stopping us is: 1. prioritization of private property ownership over every other possible measure of societal health, people can drag out these projects fighting over the land in court for decades 2. government cronyism isn't even organized enough to stomp out the issues with #1 using eminent domain, because all the small fractious governments of states and local municipalities are working against each other to each win the cronyism battle. at least in more centralized governments, the cronysim is organized enough to get the project done while skimming 75% of the money off the top.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
methodical 3y ago
> There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing. However achieving property rights for the land needed for the project is a much bigger issue in the US than in China, where I doubt they receive much dissidence from people affected due to their infrastructure improvements.
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
> China has the same problem... they simply made it a priority to build the infrastructure. If you look at China's HSR map, they have exactly one line that goes into the western half of the country (from Lanzhou to Urumuqi). It only takes 9 hours, only a few stops in between.
- tomarr 3y ago
  Large amount of US popular is clustered around key areas (East Coast corridor, West Coast Corridor, Midwestern cities etc. No reason these couldn't be linked up and are more populous than many equivalent regions with HSR. It's like power grids, noone is arguing that one big one from SF to NY is the right solution.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    China is even more densely packed behind the Heihe–Tengchong Line. Oh, don't misunderstand, China has it even harder than we do, if you look at eastern China...where people live, a lot of it is not flat and they are tunneling through lots of mountains to make these HSR lines work. Actually, that might make it easier for them, since their population is much more focused (no room for huge suburbs), and their only real challenge is building tunnels and viaducts.
NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
Other than economics, I think. The state railway in China is like $1tn in debt and it's reported that some routes are hardly used.

> The US is a huge country with a lot of empty space. China has the same problem... they simply made it a priority to build the infrastructure. There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> China has the same problem China has almost four times the population density of America’s (146 per square kilometre to 37).

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
It gets even better when 94% of China's population lives in 43% of the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line The USA is a bit better, 25% live in the western half (mostly on the west coast though).
thaumasiotes 3y ago
This is a pretty simple consequence of the facts that it has four times the population and is exactly the same size.

cmelbye 3y ago

I genuinely wonder whether such a thing is possible without a single centralized political party and severely limited avenues to disagree with the plan.

skrtskrt 3y ago

> There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing Well what's stopping us is: 1. prioritization of private property ownership over every other possible measure of societal health, people can drag out these projects fighting over the land in court for decades 2. government cronyism isn't even organized enough to stomp out the issues with #1 using eminent domain, because all the small fractious governments of states and local municipalities are working against each other to each win the cronyism battle. at least in more centralized governments, the cronysim is organized enough to get the project done while skimming 75% of the money off the top.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

methodical 3y ago

> There is nothing stopping us from doing the same thing. However achieving property rights for the land needed for the project is a much bigger issue in the US than in China, where I doubt they receive much dissidence from people affected due to their infrastructure improvements.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

> China has the same problem... they simply made it a priority to build the infrastructure. If you look at China's HSR map, they have exactly one line that goes into the western half of the country (from Lanzhou to Urumuqi). It only takes 9 hours, only a few stops in between.

tomarr 3y ago
Large amount of US popular is clustered around key areas (East Coast corridor, West Coast Corridor, Midwestern cities etc. No reason these couldn't be linked up and are more populous than many equivalent regions with HSR. It's like power grids, noone is arguing that one big one from SF to NY is the right solution.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  China is even more densely packed behind the Heihe–Tengchong Line. Oh, don't misunderstand, China has it even harder than we do, if you look at eastern China...where people live, a lot of it is not flat and they are tunneling through lots of mountains to make these HSR lines work. Actually, that might make it easier for them, since their population is much more focused (no room for huge suburbs), and their only real challenge is building tunnels and viaducts.

NovemberWhiskey 3y ago

Other than economics, I think. The state railway in China is like $1tn in debt and it's reported that some routes are hardly used.