Weeaboo faggot detected. HURR TRAINS ARE SOOOO AWESUM, WE SHUD MAKE IT LIKE JAPAN'S XD

Most do.

>crappy buses and one or two tiny 'lightrail

Who died and made you the definer of public transport?

The streetcar systems were deliberately purchased and dismantled by the auto industry, and were never rebuilt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy

>>329588
riddle me this: a lightrail route a few miles long in the gentrified downtown provides adequate public transportation a city and its suburbia... how exactly?
buses carry the fewest amount of people of any mode
pollute, consume fossil fuels and tyres and mechanical parts, require frequent replacement, contribute to road wear, can be removed at any time - a streetcar track or a railway is a long term investment

>>329638
Making it NOT VERY PROFITABLE FOR ANYBODY IMPORTANT.

>>329638

Because there are highways, and people like having cars, and US cities are planned instead of the sum of centuries random development?

There is no real demand.

>>329659
why does everything have to be about an immedient pay off?
have you not heard of a public service?
why are you opposed to people through their elected representatives carrying this out?
Now in the case of public transportation infrastructure it is a long term low yield investment - and American businesses geared towards the short term next looking at the next few financial quarters aren't capable of grasping that
(of course once its all built and paid for by the public they'd love to see it privatised...)

America is too large for any meaningful public transportation to be laid down.

>>329682
highways carry far fewer
they had public transportation till the 50s
if they're consciously planned then theres no reason not to build it
how can there be a demand for something when they have been forced into one mode and denied an alternative and pumped full of automotive indoctrination

>>329726
we are talking about cities
are you? or are you talking about something else? if so then you're off topic
now if it is cities you speak of then if they are so big as you claim - that makes them ideal for public transportation as driving around such a vast metroplex would be awful

>>329682
More like because gas is so cheap in the USA that driving a car there is cheaper than using a tram.

>>329711
You've got it figured out. Since American businesses elect politicians, propose bills, and pass legislation the government works for their favor rather than for some idealized "common good".

>>329726
>>329747
If you are talking about inter-city travel, and you mean the entire continental USA is too big for it
Then I would like you point out who has proposed coast to coast high speed trains\
You will find no one has
What has been proposed and is quite reasonable is for the major regions: North East, Mid West, Texas, California, etc
Where a high speed inter-city train could link many of the cities in these areas with 1-2 hour trips

>>329711
How about I don't want to pay taxes for something I won't use. A car is dirt cheap in America, buy one, or fucking catch the bus.

>>329731

> highways carry far fewer
So?

>they had public transportation till the 50s
And buildings insulated with asbestos.

>if they're consciously planned then theres no reason not to build it
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

>how can there be a demand for something when they have been forced into one mode and denied an alternative and pumped full of automotive indoctrination

That's your problem. Americans have a mobile, car culture and don't want what you're pushing.

Because the wealthy, affluent white people left the cities 60 years ago. Now it's just fucking niggers and they don't have the money to build city infrastructure, and they'd just ruin it anyways.

The white flight created the necessity for the car culture, and we're not moving back into the cities any time soon unless a plague comes along that kills all Africans.

>>329598
thats what i call progress

>>329785
you benefit through the reduction in drivers on the road which means less road wear which means less road works
you benefit through conserving a finite resource
you benefit through less pollution
you benefit increased productivity as more people can get to jobs and schools effectively
and can you honestly say you will 100% of the time never ever used a public transportation system that provides a broad coverage of a city and its suburbia? really?
>>329791
>So?
Less efficient
you need more of it
and they're not built over night for free
>I have no argument I'll just be a retard
good for you son keep up the good work
>Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
why not? its better
>doesn't want what you're pushing
did anyone ask America if they wanted streetcars to be dismantled and to be pushed into the car?

I feel sorry for the US when the petrol runs Out.

they will have to decide between cars or electricity for the home.

oh well thats what you get for building a nation off of false prosperity.

>>329812
the automotive industry and the government ganged up to force suburbanization

>>329812
Just how many black people do you think are in America?
Or are the cities really small now?

>>329812
>implying yuppies and hipsers didn't force latino and blacks out of cities as they moved into neighborhoods in the 1980's-90's-and-2000's

>>329830
free market capitalism made visible

80% of the USA was built since WWII. And most of that was built with only one transportation system in mind: The individual automobile and the cargo truck. So it's impossible to economically bring public transportation to such a massively inefficient civil infrastructure.

There will NEVER be Euro-type pub-trans in the USA. By the time people will "need" such systems from being exposed to hugely expensive gasoline and diesel, they won't need transportation in the first place since they won't have jobs and won't have money to use in stores.

By the end of the 21st Century, the major form of personal transportation in the USA will be the sidewalk, followed closely by the bicycle, then the horse.

>>329825

> Less efficient you need more of it
I can say the same about meat eating and grains. But I still prefer eating meat.

> why not? its better
America travels by air or by car, there is no demand for more.

>did anyone ask America if they wanted streetcars to be dismantled and to be pushed into the car?
It doesn't matter. Americans want cars now and there is no drastic need for anything else.

because in the us you need to be enclosed in a steel cage to protect yourself from niggers

thanks a lot cultural marxists!

>>329875
ah, let us enjoy this time when we can still choose.
this time of grand decadence.
why think about tomorrow..

>>329865
>he believes in peak oil

>>329875
>I can say the same about meat eating and grains. But I still prefer eating meat.
>America travels by air or by car, there is no demand for more.

amerifat obesity crisis sumed up. and they're proud of it.

>>329875
>implying most americans have a choice

>>329880

you must be new here

>>329900

People will change when economic reality makes it more pleasing.

Until that time comes (if it ever does), all you're saying is hypotheticals.

>>329918
why do you say that?

Because trains are enemies of our freedom.
Nothing but a kike-sponsored forced racial mixing pot

Baltimore 1940

Baltimore today

Don't expect cities to improve any time soon. Or ever, for that fact. Expect all parts of every country to continue to slide downhill as the genetic trash multiplies thanks to government subsidization of their breeding

>>329949
>>329963
Spot the difference.
Can you /pol/?

>>329949
>>329963

dam schvartzers

>>329977
more poverty due to collapse of steel & auto industry

>>330003
Not quite what I'm getting at.
Keep trying.

>>329562

Because driving everywhere means you have a big penis. Honestly, that's what Americans think.

>>329865
subway/elevated lines can be retrofitted into the city
streetcars go on the road, add some grade seperated sections on median strip
suburban commuter trains are largely surface so that could be tricky but oh well
if land needs to be resumed for this, so what you have to do the same thing for freeways and airports and etc
>>329880
>engineer society to specific follow one mode of transport
>accuse critics of being cultural marxists
right...
>>329904
its an infinite supply is it?
>>329923
this is where free market economics that sound great in the class room run into a brick wall when applied to the real world
you can just think to yourself as you're going to bed "gee gas is getting expensive I wish there was an alternative!" and the next morning there are commuter trains and metro trains and streetcars ready to provide you with an alternative
this takes years to plan, design, build, and get up and running
and requires money
>>329963
streetcars and trains serviced poor neighbourhoods, ethnic enclaves, black areas, etc
It might be argued that depriving them of this means of vital infrastructure is one of the factors responsible* for the situation today - unable to get around unless they had a car they could not get to jobs or school
(*the other would be the colapse of manufacturing at the end of the 1970s)