I’m not sure what your point is. Are you arguing that Switzerland is cold, snowy and mountainous, or that New Hampshire is cold, snowy and mountainous?

The maintenance cost is a particular blind spot in the US. Maintaining rail seems excessive, because we really haven’t done any in over a century and somehow think it must pay for itself. Maintaining roads is cheap because there’s always money to build a new one and cost is no object. It’s not a sustainable way of thinking.

I had been hoping Detroit’s plight would open some eyes. Among the many problems that city had was maintenance. No one can afford to maintain infrastructure for 1,850,000 on a tax base of 630,000 and still shrinking. It’s a similar deal with our road system everywhere. We build for max population, assuming cars are the only possibility, without considering that people move and that other forms of transportation may be more scalable and maintainable