Quote:
Originally Posted by tryfuhl
Agreed, infrastructure definitely hasn't gotten the push that it should have for years now. The train here is awesome and we have the Acela Express which is pretty cool, has gone really fast in trials, but that's it, still averages around 75mph or so. We have a lot of land to cover (not that China doesn't) so I can see how airfare and highways are definitely winning out, not nearly the congestion worry here, but for certain areas like the NE Corridor (which the AE covers) it'd be very nice to have an even faster service. Not to mention that the typical train from DC to NYC takes about 3 hours 20 mins and runs around 50 most days... then the AE costs about 135 and is there in 2h 45 min, what a ripoff.
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US citizens, myself included, are content with driving individual cars and dealing with traffic, etc. HOWEVER, I believe a lot of that is because mass transit offers so little here. People crowd onto planes, go through security hell (i HATE having to take my shoes off), and act like that is normal, because we have no other good options. Trains that go 275 mph, or faster, suddenly offer other options. When I was stationed in Germany, outside Nurnberg, the whole inner city, people walked, used public transport, etc, there were whole sections where cars couldn't go, it took a while to get used to that. I understand US cities are far more spread out, and thus more expensive to operate and maintain, but setting that out as a goal for the previous stimulus package would have been an amazing challenge, and one I think Americans could have rallied around. It burns me no end, when I see Route 50 outside of Easton, or Southwest blvd in baltimore, getting new median strips, and signs glorifying that as what the stimulus money bought us. It reminds me of my kids wanting ice cream, but not wanting to eat dinner first.
sorry if that was a bit of a rant...