what bothers me most about this map is that crimea is coloured like it is a part of russia instead of ukraine
Now include Asia for more America-shaming.
...and what was defunded and removed because of the corruption of government and the US auto industry. Also all of the advanced rail technology elsewhere that is generations ahead of anything in the USA.
Maybe then go on a tangent about neo-digital-feudalism making true independent freedom of ownership obsolete, along with criminal emissions laws that regulate who you buy from, creating a monopoly instead of actual emissions regulation, so that even the treasured American car culture seems terrible.
Okay, you lost me in that second bit. Are you complaining about not being able to buy a car from Smoky Jim's Smog Machines? What monopoly is being created? I've lived in two of the strictest emissions states and never had any issues buying a rust bucket or getting it inspected.
It is one thing to regulate emissions. Telling anyone what they must use to achieve emissions is wrong. An open market is able to find equivalent alternatives. This creates an innovative industry. It also makes competition for the auto industry that for components suppliers in check. The only reason to regulate emissions based on equipment is to create a monopoly controlled by the manufacturers. This is why your catalytic converter gets stolen and costs a fortune. It is a monopoly without open competition. It is the most corrupt form of capitalism: closed market. This is what killed car culture and the grassroots engineering that it supported. This is why there were no new grassroots innovative automakers in since the 1970's. The people that are actually interested in cars and tinkering have been legislated out of existence. Telling people what they must use for parts is theft of ownership and irresponsible nonsense. The responsible option is to regulate emissions based on test results. Imagine if the speed limit of the road was hard wired into your car. That would be the same thing as regulating emissions based on equipment. You are too incompetent to drive the speed limit and so your car always goes the speed limit regardless of conditions. Ownership is so eroded and warped in the USA people are too stupid to know that this is the real freedom the country was founded on. Ownership is everything.
So the reason there are no new auto manufacturers is because catalytic converters are too expensive? Car culture is dead? Do you actually live under a rock?
How about this?
You see a map of US rail lines. I see a map of trucking, asphalt, and airline lobbies at work.
Very true. Especially when you compare US passenger rail coverage to freight.
Amtrak shares the rail with freight lines on their routes. The law says freight is supposed to yield to passenger trains, but the freight trains are so long now that this is impossible so no one obeys that law. This gives a good picture of the present state and possible future of passenger rail in the US.
And to really make it hurt more, only 50 miles of that is high speed passenger rail compared to 2,200 in Europe.
for a community named travelusa, this doesn't look like great PR
I think we have some work to do?
c/fuckcars
Now do a comparison showing the USA passenger train network today vs. the USA passenger train network circa 1950. We used to look a lot more like Europe, but we've regressed since then.
Edit:
Well that sucks.
Counterpoint: all that empty space is pretty empty space.
There's a reason why they call it flyover country.
Impressive there's so much cross-country collaboration in Europe, except for Northern and the Republic of Ireland.
Just a reminder pullman went broke trying to do passenger rail in the US.
Anything from road trips on the east coast to vacations in Hawaii, this instance is dedicated to discussing travel within the United States.
