China can build high speed rail at $20M per mile. If we actually built the lines instead of just political graft we could build 6350 miles of high speed rail for that price. That is coast to coast rail 2.5 times.
EVs also increase road wear and tear by a large factor, since they are so heavy. Trains have much lower wear and tear maintenance costs.
If you couple this with some densification by removing zoning, the health savings alone from people walking more would pay for high speed rail.
But no we will build 28M electric chargers for cars instead.
Why one and not the other? You think china isn't building tons of EV chargers themselves too? High speed rail is nice and all but realistically you're needing to solve the issue of people commuting to work or commuting around town. High speed rail doesn't solve that really at all. You need local transit solutions.
In some situations, yes. In the large majority of the US: no, they can't. Not without significant policy changes that will take decades to accomplish. We're stuck with cars whether you like it or not, so best to optimize within the constraints we have.
China can build high speed rail at $20M per mile. If we actually built the lines instead of just political graft we could build 6350 miles of high speed rail for that price. That is coast to coast rail 2.5 times.
EVs also increase road wear and tear by a large factor, since they are so heavy. Trains have much lower wear and tear maintenance costs.
If you couple this with some densification by removing zoning, the health savings alone from people walking more would pay for high speed rail.
But no we will build 28M electric chargers for cars instead.