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Comment by cloverich | Hacker News Reader

What I don't understand -- how is road cheaper? I don't get it -- in Austin TX they are spending years to add a single lane to one of the main highways, along with high walls of thick concrete on either side to help with noise in neighborhood, etc. For all the talk of railway's cost and requiring disrupting existing buildings, we have paved roads criss-crossing all of our residential and commercial districts already. It certainly feels like the same way the government is promoting cars, spread out cities, and suburbia, they could be promoting more densely populated, rail-backed cities.

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> in Austin TX they are spending years to add a single lane to one of the main highways

We gotcha beat in Seattle, where it took 30 years to build the north I5-I405 interchange. It took only 20 years to build the 8th Street I405 overpass. 25 years are projected for the light rail.

The freeways were built in a time when you could realistically eminent-domain and bulldoze your way across the country. We no longer live in that time. Any project involving new rights of way is infeasible because property rights (especially property rights over land you don't own, but sits adjacent to your home) are so much stronger now.

Government is promoting cars, spread-out cities, and suburbia because they work so well and people love them so much.

Think about how much housing supply would go away if not for the road network.

Think about the bare-minimum transportation appliance car. With a private, enclosed space, air conditioning, a comfortable seat, and a radio, it's worlds better as a subjective experience than being inside even a relatively luxurious urban train during the commute rush. Now consider how many tens of thousands of dollars people happily spend on a level of comfort and quality far beyond the bare-minimum Craigslist special.

Democratic governments promote and invest in what their citizens like.

Road is more expensive but a lot more people want to use roads then want to use railroads so it doesn't matter what the price is.

It doesn't matter if something is cheaper or more efficient if people don't want to use it.

This is like asking why doesn't everyone use Linux?

It's not all about what people want either. Even with a rail system, you still need all the roads. Maybe not as many lanes, but American cities are pretty spread out. You will need a ton of last mile transportation.

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