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melling

I remember that brief period 30 years ago when we were going to have high-speed maglev trains.

https://www.amazon.com/Popular-Science-Vol-June-1992/dp/B008...

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/03/science/new-funds-fuel-ma...

People will leave their cars behind if they can travel more quickly by mass transit.

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Im not convinced thats true in all or even most cases

Move to a city where mass transit is available, day-to-day amenities are located close enough to be walking distance, and where using a car is inconvenient (no free parking, hard to find parking spaces, inconvenient garages in the city centre, congestion fees, etc.) and you will see that most people will drop car usage.

It's very easy to see when you live it yourself.

And where people's activities don't involve carrying things. Public transit is great until you need to get groceries for the week from the store back home, or take more time every day to get that day's groceries instead of a weekly trip.

It's also more expensive to buy small quantities of many products than it is to buy in bulk and store the excess until it's used. It's yet another way our society punishes the poor.

Why would you buy groceries every day? Usually, where I live, people who need more than a backpack of groceries have a small rolling bag, with enough space to fit a week's worth of groceries for a family of 3-4. I buy groceries for a week for 2 people on a large backpack.

Public transit is just great overall, being able to walk to get basic day-to-day needs is pretty sweet as well. I seriously do not understand this argument, and I've lived in Brazil, USA, and Sweden, it's simply a non-issue when mass transit is dependable, well-connected, and available.

I live in texas where we havent had a high temp lower than 100F for about a month. Things cannot be close enough for people to want to walk there instead of taking a car.

I lived in Brazil for a long part of my life, walking outside when it's 38C isn't fun for long stretches but a 15 min walk to the store under the shade of trees is absolutely common... Texas is made of asphalt though, probably hard to find trees among all that pavement.

Sure, but most people wouldn't be able to on their commute as the US doesn't have enough money to build tracks in cities these days as "fair value" for eminent domain would be simply too much, at least in the USA. Taxpayers would never want to pay for it, especially since public transportation always has to be subsidized.

We already subsidize roads and highways. People conveniently forget that.

The idea would be to target the largest cities, of course.

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