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Wouldn’t electric trains and busses make a lot more sense?

yes, but this way, we could have our (expensive) cake and eat it too. we could free up the above ground streets for electric buses, pedestrians, bikes, malls/parks, and the like, make cities denser/more walkable, remove asphalt/concrete to lower the heat island effect, add trees/plants everywhere, and all sorts of human centered stuff. it’s not so realistic (though the boring company may help with that), but what a vision it is!

Aren't parts of Chicago already kind of like this, with two tiers of streets?

dunno. i know there’s the el for trains and some old streets were paved over and effectively buried 1 story down, but i didn’t think they were in use.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilevel_streets_in_Chicag...

To some extent yes. I remember one of my first experiences in Chicago taking the Metra Electric from Hyde Park to downtown and getting out at the north entrance which dumps you out at Lower Water Street, which is very disorienting if you are not familiar with the area.

Yes, reducing pollution always makes more sense than cleaning it up after the fact.

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