• citrusface@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s not that easy. Sprawl needs to be addressed. Our cities are build around cars. You can’t slap a few busses in a town expect shit to work.

      I work an hour away from my home. I would take a train but there isnt one that is reliable or cheaper than driving.

      Having a light rail system that connected the east coast would take centuries unless the government acted with unprecedented action and speed even then it would be decades.

      I’d love more public transportation yes.

      I am saying right off the bat I think biodiesel would be a more viable alternativ as it could be relatively easily adopted as the infrastructure is already in place.

      Edit - I was probably a bit verbose when I wrote this. Clearly it won’t take centuries. Decade or two at the most

      Edit two: I was also misinformed about biodiesel - thanks for the helpful information, I appreciate it.

      • daltotron@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yeah, I dunno if it realistically takes that long. We pivoted from a world where cars didn’t broadly exist and public transit in the form of trams and trains was extremely common, to one where cars were hyper-dominant, in like, less than a quarter century, with nothing but publicly targeted corporate propaganda, huge amounts of government lobbying, and a post-war economy. The thing we lack isn’t really the ability to rapidly construct a large level of infrastructure, the thing we lack is the political will to make it happen. Most infrastructure needs to be rebuilt to be maintained like every 25 years anyways. I dunno, 25 years seems like a pretty fast turnaround time to me, in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider how gradually it can be done just by changing zoning laws or engineering standards and practices. I mean, centuries? That seems extremely hyperbolic.

      • Jeanschyso@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I would just remove one word from everyone you wrote. “Unprecedented”

        Look up how much time it took to build the initial interstates. Same shit in Canada and the Trans-canada highway. It didn’t take centuries to build, it won’t take centuries to fix either.