Quote:
Originally Posted by wburg
This reminds me of gun-control debates where any firearm below a certain size is a "concealable pocket rocket" and any firearm above that size is a "deadly assault weapon." Basically, when the HSR plan is big and comprehensive, the critics say it's too big and expensive. When it is scaled back in response to criticism, the critics say it's too small and doesn't fit the specifications of the bill. There is no happy medium for the anti-train folks.
Infrastructure investment does produce returns--but the types of places created by those investments vary. Rail-based infrastructure tends to promote more vertical, compact development--when the United States had the best railroad system in the world, we built compact cities and invented the skyscraper to address the need for better use of space. Road/highway based infrastructure tends to promote more horizontal, broad development over wider areas due to the space requirements of the car. When we built the best highway system in the world, cities sprawled horizontally and we invented the shopping mall and the big-box store, surrounded by huge parking lots, to address the need for automobiles to park everywhere. So we traded skyscrapers for "landscrapers"--and HSR represents the transportation infrastructure we will need to trade back!
|
HSR IS A NEW HIGHWAY SYSTEM. look at it on a map. seeing that we already have a highway system, what difference will it make? will goods be getting hauled on HSR? nope, its not even in discussion. will it be profitable? nope. if it had possibility of profit, private business would be interested in it but they are not. and if HSR comes online, its already guaranteed to have a high ticket price meaning the poor and middle class wont ride it, it is in its current blended form longer transportation time than a plane from LA to SF, the first phase only goes from L.A. to merced...who the hell in glamour capital L.A. is just waiting to see the country towns of the san joaquin valley and the high desert and ag fields along the way? so seriously, what difference will it make in the grand scheme of things? and just for future reference, I am not anti-train, Im anti-goverment waste in all forms, and i believe the train is a form of it. IF IT WAS PRIVATE MONEY funding this, i would be in total support of it