The United States is trying to get on track with high-speed rail, and a public transportation expert shattered the notion that the country is too big for such infrastructure.
TikTok creator molesrcool (@molesrcool), who produces mainly transit and electric vehicle content, compared the size of the world's fourth-largest country to Europe. He overlaid passenger rail networks on the maps to show America's dearth of train travel options.
@molesrcool Replying to @findmycomment23 the argument that the US is somehow so big that we HAVE to have extreme car dependency rather than trains is nonsense #walkablecities #cars #traffic #urbanism ♬ Twin Peaks Main Theme (From "Twin Peaks") - Geek Music
"There's no reason that American cities couldn't be more like Madrid with dense housing and walkability," he said. "In fact, all American cities used to be more like Madrid."
He said "we destroyed everything to make room for cars," sharing photos that showed Kansas City in 1893 and 2022.
"It used to have trolley tracks and walkability and dense housing, and now it's just roads and cars and parking lot," the creator continued.
That was a result of sprawl, as the country turned from urban to suburban areas — and car dependency — which also meant cities needed to incorporate bigger roads and parking lots to accommodate those who traveled there.
"There's no reason that the U.S. should be this bad," he said.
If the country can push the Los Angeles-to-Bay Area rail project to the finish line — its first segment is scheduled to open in 2030 — it might create a domino effect.
A high-speed rail network in Florida is on the cusp of another expansion, and the High Speed Rail Alliance calls that Brightline footprint "a model for intercity regional rail."
Next up could be a long-proposed line in Texas that has been gaining steam lately, the Pacific Northwest, or the Midwest.
The Biden administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has helped stir the pot, as such development would create jobs, reduce transportation pollution, and help travelers save time and money.
Take a look at this beautiful map to see how big the impact could be. The U.S. is enormous, but that didn't stop railroads from playing a vital role in the development of the nation during the Industrial Revolution. Now, people are calling for high-speed rail to do the same during the green transition.
"People who say 'it's too big for rails' forget that it wasn't too big for roads, and apparently don't know just how complicated and expensive roads are," one TikToker said.
Another wrote: "Like every village in the UK has a train station, most villages don't in the US. And it makes no sense, they need trains."
"That would be too convenient for citizens," someone else noted.
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