• Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    11 hours ago

    After living in Japan for a while it’s so hard to go back to countries with no trains. It’s so incredibly convenient that I still have dreams of just hopping on a train with google maps in hand to just explore stuff — the best way to experience Japan!

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      11 hours ago

      Why? The one driver per hundreds of passengers is drop in the bucket and it is better to have a human who can deal with various issues an AI can’t.

    • moon@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      19 hours ago

      The North American mind can’t comprehend cities where there’s no split between residential/urban areas, and every mode of public transportation goes from your house to anywhere you want. Even the next town or country

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      20 hours ago

      Imagine a world without the need for a car. There’s probably a train station that’s in walking distance. Maybe 10-15 minutes. More than that, possibly a quick bus to the corner of your street.

      In this world, the grocery store is also a 10-15 minute walk, possibly bear the station. Instead of loading up on $200 of groceries once a week, you buy a few pieces on your way to work and/or back home.

      There’s a nice public park, a library, and even a promenade somewhere also a short walk away. Various retail shops and service centers of all kinds (electronics, home and goods, hardware, appliances) could literally be your downstairs neighbors.

      Even if all of these aren’t exactly close to you or your train station, they can be a short bus or train ride away. You walk more, bike more. You have a backpack and side racks for the bike. Your health improves, and you interact more with the people of the area.

      Welcome to many cities of the world, even in the US.

      • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        18 hours ago

        Sure our cities could be much better but you do realize there are communities in America that can’t even provide reliable safe drinking water let alone an entire new infrastructure for their small, low income population? Or already overburdened underfunded system so nothing is working efficiently and just adding more to the docket?

        Probably gonna get shit for this but I find the fuck cars people to be as narrow sighted and obnoxious as vegans. I love your vision, I really do. But damn I have a hard time not being exasperated every time I read a post.

        • PunnyName@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          14 hours ago

          Approximately half of the entire US population lives in large urban areas. 115,000,000 people. Large urban areas can benefit from higher density housing, as well as what I previously mentioned, and so much more.

          And the money is there.

          Yet, somehow, every time improvements using transit are suggested, every single fucking time, someone mentions the complexities of rural areas.

          Maybe let’s fucking start somewhere we know it could work, and then branch out.

          But can we fucking START‽

        • lime!@feddit.nu
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          15 hours ago

          not subsidizing petroleum would probably bring in a few tax dollars

  • HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    23 hours ago

    People really hate the idea of trains

    Our rail system has been so terrible for so long that people are unable to even consider the possibility that it doesn’t have to be shit

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Huh? Our rail system seems to be just fine. I’m not so hot about the new faster train to Turku though

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      14 hours ago

      Our rail system

      Living in France and Belgium, I’d argue it’s not that bad. Is this the same “Our”?

        • ShrimpCurler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          11 hours ago

          Yeah people in the US tend to assume everything is about the US. Sometimes it’s good to remind them that other places exist and have internet.

          • HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            8 hours ago

            At the current rate of acquisition the current US president is attempting there may no longer be other countries, just more states

            Then everyone can think that way

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      23 hours ago

      I love trains, but hate shitty trains. I’ll gladly take a 10 hour train ride instead of a 1 hour flight. But when tens are late, cancelled, delayed by priority cargo trains, etc, it makes me hate trains…

      • pedz@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        22 hours ago

        It doesn’t make me hate trains, it makes me hate the car and aviation industries for influencing governments and the general public.

        In Canada trains suck in general because of all you mentioned, but I’m aware that it’s caused by putting all of our money into highways, airports and the aviation industry, rather than putting a single dollar into owning and building more tracks.

  • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    24 hours ago

    How about self driving buses?

    Trains are really cool, but not ideal for low traffic conditions + areas requiring a lot of route flexibility. We definitely should build a lot more trains/trams than what were building right now, but self driving buses will still have a very large use case.

      • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        11 hours ago

        Yeah self-driving at this point doesn’t really add much. Just improving driving conditions with bus lanes and better driver support is much more useful as you’d have to have a supervisor on the bus anyway.

    • egonallanon@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      22 hours ago

      The trick is you do both buses and trains. You use the buses to connect communities that don’t have large transit requirements between them and then for commuting you use buses to direct people to train stations where they can get the trains to work/ where they need to go en masse. Transportation is a multilevel solution that requires multiple modes to get people where they need to go but you can’t just rely on buses as quite frankly they lack the ability move all that many people even across quite short distances.

      Also to address the self driving part: autonomous road vehicles that can operate safely and at scale are well in the fucking magic territory of technology. If you want a proven highly autonomous travel technique that works trains have been doing it for decades.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      23 hours ago

      No one wants a bus! That’s not cool.

      However, I’ve invented a revolutionary “shared mega limo”. It’s like an Uber, but with 50 seats, and optionally you can ride standing if you’re sporty. It’s the size of a bus, but definitely not a bus.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    24 hours ago

    One makes very little noise, the other makes so much noise that dogs either shit themselves or attack their neighbors.

    I’m not exactly a fan of any of it, whether it be EVs or trains, but it really is a pain to try to comfort a shivering dog that’s about ready to shit himself or kill the neighbor’s dog when a train passes.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        23 hours ago

        You’ve clearly never been under an under/overpass have you?

        That’s like a fucking echo chamber, like the absolute loudest place you could possibly be.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      24 hours ago

      This sounds more like a freight train. Many modern light commuter trains are quieter than an average SUV. The rail line could also have sound barriers installed if noise is still an issue.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        24 hours ago

        Guess you missed the memo, trains legally have to have super loud horns for train/road intersections.

        Have you heard a train horn lately? You’re probably used to it. Now imagine what a dumb (or even smart) dog thinks when hearing a train horn…

        Our dog both damn near shit himself and almost attacked another dog barely am hour ago after he heard a train horn.

        • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          16 hours ago

          We don’t have this in Sweden because it’s not an actual necessity. It’s only a thing because your infrastructure is so damn bad.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            20 hours ago

            Nope, from a city park. Maybe they should move the city park away from the train tracks, or move the train tracks away from the city park.

            I dunno, but it seems to me that someone in city engineering fucked up. Like who the fuck wants a dog park literally 200 feet close to train tracks?

            • SeekPie@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              12 hours ago

              who the fuck wants a dog park literally 200 feet close to train tracks?

              Maybe people who take the train to get to the park?

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          21 hours ago

          You say that as if it’s reasonable to have level grade crossings at all to begin with.

          In other words, what you’re complaining about isn’t a problem with trains, but rather a problem with dipshit planners trying to cheap out and failing to properly fund trains.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            21 hours ago

            Of course it’s reasonable to have level train crossings, in a fucking flood zone!

            Act like any of us wanna fucking die in a flooded tunnel, trying to evacuate from hurricane flood waters!

            Shit, there’s a reason we don’t have basements here.

              • over_clox@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                20 hours ago

                C) You can’t elevate train tracks, at least not by much. Trains have to run almost completely level to the ground.

                Get fucking real.

                • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  20 hours ago

                  Uh, what? You absolutely can run trains on elevated tracks. Japan does it all the time. So do many other cities and countries. If you want to get real fancy, mag-lev runs almost exclusively on elevated tracks. Where did you get the impression that you can’t elevate train tracks?

            • grue@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              20 hours ago

              Okay, okay, I get it: you’re a special snowflake and you’ll spring whatever previously unmentioned random BS on us in order to move the goalposts to pretend your position – which to be clear, is that some fucking dog is more important than proper public transit – is somehow anything short of ridiculous.

              But sure, I’ll play along in good faith: FYI, getting rid of level grade crossings does not necessarily involve tunnels; bridges are a thing too. Therefore, your argument fails.

              What histrionic excuse for your train hate are you going to come up with next?

                • grue@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  20 hours ago

                  You do realize that the street can be the thing that changes elevation instead, right?

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          23 hours ago

          Some cities allow trains to refrain from horns within city limits and instead the barrier makes a more localized dinging. I live near a major rail interchange and they rarely every honk their horns, oftenly only using a short warning horn if needed.

          When I lived rurally trains with horns were far more common. On a human note I’d rather hear a train horn occasionally than hear constant traffic noise. I get how thats harder to manage with a dog but perhaps consistent training could lessen their response to horns.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            23 hours ago

            Yeah, our little adopted stray fella Brownie apparently came from out in the country somewhere away from trains.

            He’s generally a really good dog, almost exceptional really, all things considered. But super loud noises still make him nervous…

  • AreaKode@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    24 hours ago

    Doesn’t matter what route you go down; if you try to actually fix traffic, you will always end up inventing busses and trains.