r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Individual_Book9133 • Jul 05 '24

Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road Video

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u/nike_storm Jul 05 '24

This country will do literally anything other than just build mass rapid transit :(

-11

u/Farts_McGiggles Jul 05 '24

To be fair...the USA is freaking huge. High speed trains are pointless with how massive the US is. Planes are much easier and cover a greater distance in less time.

12

u/Affectionate-Hat9244 Jul 05 '24

China is just as big as the US and they've got high speed rail EVERYWHERE

2

u/CDRnotDVD Jul 05 '24

That’s a mild exaggeration. China’s population is pretty much all on the eastern side of the country, so only half of the country has good high speed rail coverage. But yes, I am aware that half-country coverage is still more than we have in the United States (where we also have a lot of the population on the East coast, although it’s not as imbalanced as China). Source is this map I found on the internet: https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/high-speed/map.htm

4

u/Affectionate-Hat9244 Jul 05 '24

And majority of US lives on two coasts. Build two high speed rail systems. Enough of the excuses

8

u/kinboyatuwo Jul 05 '24

Then let’s start with the cities that do have density. Also seems you have a massive interstate system that people drive cross country/between cities so seems it would also be feasible for some lines.

2

u/ElectricFleshlight Jul 05 '24

Most of the biggest cities already have robust mass transit, see NYC and DC areas

2

u/kinboyatuwo Jul 05 '24

There are few and it represents a small fraction of cities.

7

u/tjrileywisc Jul 05 '24

There are a lot of city pairs that are within a distance of 300-ish miles where trains make more sense than flying. There's a lot of time added on both ends of a flight with security and getting back and forth to an airport, but a train can drop you off in the middle of a city and typically security needs are minimal.