Europe has 57 subway systems. The US has 10-12 depending on how you count them.
My whole point is maybe we work on that. The amount of emissions reduced by building effective public transit in every US city of 500k+ would be enormous.
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You may be onto something. Not sure though. Poor, young, old, minorities tend to ride more. Most people drive mini SUVs, either Subarus or Toyotas, mostly black. Richer people go with bigger trucks. I walk. Or ride my bike. Crappy 20 yo red Saturn on occasion.
For a city break sure, but if you want to go further afield a car rental is often a good choice.
Not just Europe, but most everywhere in Latin America is easily livable/visitable without a car as well. In the covid-era, Iâve found that in Mexico City, I donât even really need public transport, 99% of stuff is doable by walking or using their extensive bikeshare system. Been to a couple dozen Mexican cities, and Monterrey is maybe the only one where Iâve felt like Iâd probably want a car if I lived there.
Another thing that is really great, that is lacking in the USA, is inter-city bus travel. There are a ton of buses in Mexico, even to cities 10+ hours away and often they are super comfortable (double-decker, modern, tons of space and can recline a bunch and easily sleep). And then once you arrive in your destination, youâre usually in the center and can just quickly exit the station and start your travels.
Does anyone know Pittsburgh well? I remember reading a couple years back that they 2-3 of the 15 or so gold-rated bus lines in the USA. Iâm wondering if itâs feasible going car-less there or if the public transport is still kind of a joke.
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True but they still like that itâs there. Iâve never ridden it but I think it would be great to commute to the university or ride out to the airport.
Capitol Hill cop mightâve been shot, maybe not shot, new tweet below
https://twitter.com/jacquiheinrich/status/1378032633293201410?s=21
https://twitter.com/jacquiheinrich/status/1378033471495475204?s=21
Not just that, but a lot of the cities with subways also have other options that are pretty solid as well. In Lyon, France for example, when I was studying French at a language school about a 50 minute walk away and didnât feel like walking, I could take the metro, but also a bus or even a tram. The tram was slowest, but sometimes I took it just b/c itâs kinda fun and could see a different part of the city.
Other cities Iâve lived in had pretty solid metros (Montreal and Mexico City), but also pretty extensive buslines. And Wellington NZ had no metro, but incredible buslines. City is super compact and walkable anyway, so didnât even need the buses all that much.
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Busses in Portland, OR are pretty nice. They even have places to stow bikes.
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Yah, sadly seems like a lost cause in a lot of cities due to culture/white flight. When I grew up in Omaha, my parents were living on 132nd Street, which was already a pretty long trip by car to the center (which is actually kinda fun now in Omaha). About 15 years later they moved further away to 176th and then another 10 years moved to like 212th. Every time they notice Hispanics, Indians, or African-Americans in the neighbourhood, they think itâs time to flee further away. Pretty pathetic and sad.
In terms of transport between cities, itâs probably best just to ignore like 75% of the country and focus on key corridors: the northeast, west coast, around Chicago, Texas, etc. Connecting a city like Omaha (which is the case in some of the proposals upthread) seems kinda pointless b/c other reasonable sized cities (Denver/Chicago) are all 7+ hours away except KC at 3 hours. I couldnât see that many of the people here being that excited about taking a 5 hour train to Denver or Chicago anyway (although I would love that, trains are awesome).
So something weird is going down.
https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/1378034308695351307?s=20
Edit: sounds like someone rammed the gate.
commuter rail has a reputation of being more on time, although itâs mostly due to dedicated tracks, and society pays for it with longer build and regulatory times. itâs popular and even ecologically cleaner when properly electrified. upto most recently, trolleys and streetcar were the sacrificial lamb to the fossil fuel lobby, but bus in most of america always meant gas which is kinda a bad deal for municipalities to be taking on that much risk for years and decades ahead. but even that trend has been changing. electric trolleys and streetcars are apparently worth saving now where they exist. the seem to keep neighborhoods alive. trolleys with batteries are going to meaningfully expand the trolley range as well.
ultimately, if the service suffers and becomes used only by the poorer parts of society, it will die. if cities invest more, they get better paying customers.
FYP
Two officers hospitalized suspect in custody
yeah itâs a little weird, they could just tax car sales to not only pay for infrastructure but also incentivize free public transportation to relieve urban congestion and make more space on the road and itâs somehow un-american or socialist. but raising roughly the same revenue by taxing the fuel and spending it on building bigger highways is just fine and dandy.
MSNBC reports the âsuspectâ is dead.
I donât think you read the whole post.
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What about those that lease? I say we leave them out.
Any rumors on who this capitol crazy is and what his agenda is? Canât believe another capitol cop dead. Unbelievable.
If youâre counting off of the Wikipedia page, I can tell that it undercounts it. The city I lived in (Valencia) along with Malaga and Seville are excluded when they all have metros. I donât know how much more since I havenât been everywhere but I wouldnât be surprised if a few others were excluded as well.
If the US government really wanted to do it, it could be done. If they donât want something and still want to placate the majority, they half-ass it then say, âSee? It wasnât worth it. We told you!â before tearing it down.
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