Reply to post: Re: you focus on EVs were you can

Re: you focus on EVs were you can

>The problem is that in Britain (and the USA) there's no concurrent plan to improve public transport alongside it<

There is no rational plan, but there will be plans of some kind. Las Vegas is a popular weekend destination for people in Southern California. Train service would alleviate all of the traffic problems and get rid of the massive tailbacks when there is an accident. The problem is as soon as there is talk about adding train service again, some attorney makes it a requirement that it will be High Speed Rail and that kills it. The project gets trimmed back to a route that doesn't get anywhere near Los Angeles or San Diego so people will just make the whole trip in their car rather than park up in some small desert town along the highway and hope their vehicle will be there when they get back while at the same time only minimally shortening their trip time.

There are also those projects that fall short of being a complete solution. Going back to Las Vegas, Elon carved out a couple of sewer pipes under the convention center and instead of going with a system like the one at Heathrow terminal 5 with automated cars, they are using human driven off the shelf Tesla vehicles where I haven't seen a demonstration of whether the passenger doors could be opened enough to get out if there were a problem. The UltraPRT pods at terminal 5 doors open like a barn door so don't need the same clearance as a gull-wing or standard car door. Only half of a proper transportation system was worked out and the rest just bodged.

Sleepy Joe Biden's office has put forward an allocation for Amtrak, the US's national passenger rail service, to expand it a bit. One of its big problems is the lack of destinations and not much of a schedule. They also don't have the amount of rolling stock they can use and even less now as there was an accident when a train hit a dump truck that stalled at a level crossing. I believe that train service is one of those things that lends itself to "build it and they will come". It's a great way to travel without all of the indignities of going by air. Schedules that connect points with overnight service might not even need to travel all that fast. I love that I can take luggage without yet another fee and get a meal of my choosing or a drink if I want from when I board to the end of my trip.