this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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You can have both. Europe has a great mix. So awesome to have the option to take the train or bus. They also have awesome road infrastructure in most places. Try comparing an American freeway to a German freeway. You feel like you're in a third world country when you come back to the roads in the States.
On the one hand, I hear the arguments that Europe has a higher population density, more hubs and smaller cities that make trains effective, but the same efficiencies and cost cuts can't be achieved in the US.
On the other hand, I played railroad tycoon and saw how trains and trams were extremely successful to quickly connect and develop a sparse US through efficient public intercity and in-city transport and feel disappointed with the lack of imagination 🥲
Europe as a whole is not a lot smaller than the US, so I think many of the same efficiencies can be achieved. China has also been able to do it very efficiently and is basically the same size as the US. Granted, they have a much larger population and more potential customers, but it can definitely be done.
As I said, lack of imagination. There is this bump in effort that has to be transposed to reach actual returns on investment because energy is too cheap and secure atm. But once that bump is transposed, there is a large landscape of gains, but they can't see past the bump.