• grue@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I think a more recent map is more interesting:

    Remember, America was not built for the car, as ignorant people often claim. It was demolished for the car.

    • FinnFooted@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      What’s crazy to me is that many of the railroads still exist and are used… But for freight only.

      • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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        6 days ago

        I looked at taking the train from Albuquerque to Denver, it goes east to Chicago before going back to Denver. It is a 7 hour drive, but a 32 hour train ride.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 days ago

          To be fair, we’re using centuries-old technology so it’s not surprising that it’s that much slower.

          If we had proper high speed rail, like the Shinkansen, it would be much shorter.

      • suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        This is the whole fucking point. Cars being more convenient than rail is a choice. We have and can make a different choice.

        • Fair Fairy@thelemmy.club
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          5 days ago

          No u see railroads were before cars. We humans made a choice to use cars. That’s because they were drastically more convenient.

          I don’t want to use the railroad I’m sorry. I would rather have a car. I mean yes I want a flying car, I want an electric car - but its still need to be an individual means of transportation I don’t need to share with anyone and with a cargo compartment.

        • Fair Fairy@thelemmy.club
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          5 days ago

          No we cannot. There is no way trains would be more convenient than cars. Have u tried going to the store and bringing a cart of groceries home? I have.

          • Guy Named ZERO@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            Then make stores we can just walk to in like 10 minutes. Then you don’t need to take a whole cart of groceries home and you can just go shopping every day for whatever you need

              • Guy Named ZERO@sh.itjust.works
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                5 days ago

                Then how do you go shopping if you don’t even have the time to walk for 20 minutes? It’s pretty likely that you have a 30+ minute commute by car, trains/buses would help free up that time.

                • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  2 days ago

                  i like to say that the grocery store is my pantry, what i keep at home is basically just pasta, spices, stuff like vinegar, and the fresh things i’ve bought from the store that day.

              • bent@feddit.dk
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                5 days ago

                I go to one of the 5 stores close to my home several times a week, sometimes multiple times the same day. We have gone insanely overboard with store density, but it’s completely feasible to have small stores everywhere if the incentive are there.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        5 days ago

        I mean sure. I just wish I had the choice and could do cars for just the last miles.

        Cars are more convenient than a bus route locally but long distance travel where everyone can sleep to be rested for vacation and there no big security theater for local travel and I just keep my bags and snacks? Ugh so good.

        It doesn’t have to be more convenient in destination choices but in travel I think it has some positives.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I’d take trains for long trips, but no way could I get by without a car. How would I carry our family’s crap to the beach, camp, lake? How would I get 15 sacks of groceries home? Forget hitting the hardware story for much of anything.

        OTOH, I’d love to hop a train and roll to New Orleans or Mobile for a day trip.