Coast to Coast? Sure, but every city in North America? Nah, that isn’t practical at all.
For instance France apparently builds high speed rail for 25 Million per kilometer so lets use their cost number. The straightline distance, shortest possible, from Denver to Omaha is 483 kilometers so the line from Omaha to Denver alone would cost 12 BILLION dollars.
Denver to Salt Lake is 590 Kilometers, again straight line, so there goes another 14.7 Billion dollars. (This is also absolutely impossible to do at this price) SLC to Los Angeles is 930 kilometers, another 23.2 Billion.
We’ve now spent 49.9 Billion to connect just FOUR cities and only have a single rail line that goes from Omaha to LA. If you want coast to coast then a single least possible distance link from D.C. to San Francisco would cost right at $100 Billion.
All of those calculations assume the 25 Million per kilometer can be done in the United States too. For example the High Speed rail being built in California is costing four times as much.
So no, trying to connect every city in North America with High Speed rail not only isn’t practical it isn’t economically possible on any reasonable timeline as it would require a major percentage of the US’s entire GDP to be spent on it every single year for the next century. The US is fucking huge and we have a lot of cities.
In 2020 the US state and local governments spent $116 billion for the construction of roads and highways and $94 billion of operating costs.
If you just cancel half of the road construction projects of the year you get more than enough money to fund the connection of the 4 cities you described.
Pretty sure the interstate highway system isn’t terribly practical either, but with enough funding it can be done. Maybe saying every major city would make it seem more practical.
Yeah light rail, bike lanes, and walking roads. We can build a constructed environment designed around human beings. A world that’s good for our health, both physical and mental, and for our planet. All we need to do is accept a reality that cars aren’t a good use of resources and that walking and biking are really good for us.
Not that there isn’t a lot of room for improvement, but while I can’t say I’ve been to every major city in the US, I’ve never had a major issue getting around once I’m inside the city. Even if things are spread out a bit, there’s sidewalks and crosswalks, which is all I personally need to consider an area walkable. And public transportation will usually get you to different areas of the city even if you may still have to walk a bit when you get off.
Admittedly I’m probably more willing to walk around than the average person, and not everyone is capable of walking that much, so like I said, still lots of room for improvement.
My biggest issue tends to be getting into the city in the first place, or getting from one city to another. From my home in the suburbs I can drive to pretty much anywhere in my nearest city in about an hour or less as long as I can avoid any major traffic jams. If I try to take public transportation though, im looking at an hour walk before I get to somewhere I can catch a bus (which only comes a handful of times a day,) and then a couple more hours before I get where I’m going, probably having to transfer to a different bus or train at least once along the way. If I drive a half hour or so to a train station then I can get right to downtown pretty easily, but the train only comes about every hour so if I don’t time it right and miss the train it’s significantly faster for me to just drive the rest of the way than wait for another train. Then they mostly stop coming at about 11pm, which means if I’m going into the city for a concert or something, I’m cutting it close and may not be able to get back home on public transit.
And if I’m trying to get to another city, I’m pretty much SOL. I’m basically at the halfway point between that major city and 2 smaller cities, and there is no transit options to get to those 2 other cities from where I am.
High-speed rail connecting every North American city.
Coast to Coast? Sure, but every city in North America? Nah, that isn’t practical at all.
For instance France apparently builds high speed rail for 25 Million per kilometer so lets use their cost number. The straightline distance, shortest possible, from Denver to Omaha is 483 kilometers so the line from Omaha to Denver alone would cost 12 BILLION dollars.
Denver to Salt Lake is 590 Kilometers, again straight line, so there goes another 14.7 Billion dollars. (This is also absolutely impossible to do at this price) SLC to Los Angeles is 930 kilometers, another 23.2 Billion.
We’ve now spent 49.9 Billion to connect just FOUR cities and only have a single rail line that goes from Omaha to LA. If you want coast to coast then a single least possible distance link from D.C. to San Francisco would cost right at $100 Billion.
All of those calculations assume the 25 Million per kilometer can be done in the United States too. For example the High Speed rail being built in California is costing four times as much.
So no, trying to connect every city in North America with High Speed rail not only isn’t practical it isn’t economically possible on any reasonable timeline as it would require a major percentage of the US’s entire GDP to be spent on it every single year for the next century. The US is fucking huge and we have a lot of cities.
In 2020 the US state and local governments spent $116 billion for the construction of roads and highways and $94 billion of operating costs.
If you just cancel half of the road construction projects of the year you get more than enough money to fund the connection of the 4 cities you described.
Source:Highway and Road Expenditures
Pretty sure the interstate highway system isn’t terribly practical either, but with enough funding it can be done. Maybe saying every major city would make it seem more practical.
In 2020 the US state and local governments spent $116 billion for the construction of roads and highways and $94 billion of operating costs.
If you just cancel half of the road construction projects by a year you get enough money to fund the connection of the 4 cities you described.
The problem then is transport inside the city. Couple this idea with the (currently) top comment to make cities walkable and this is pure fire.
Trains you can park cars on. Would be great for camping weekends where I need all of my gear but don’t want to drive for hours.
Yeah light rail, bike lanes, and walking roads. We can build a constructed environment designed around human beings. A world that’s good for our health, both physical and mental, and for our planet. All we need to do is accept a reality that cars aren’t a good use of resources and that walking and biking are really good for us.
Not that there isn’t a lot of room for improvement, but while I can’t say I’ve been to every major city in the US, I’ve never had a major issue getting around once I’m inside the city. Even if things are spread out a bit, there’s sidewalks and crosswalks, which is all I personally need to consider an area walkable. And public transportation will usually get you to different areas of the city even if you may still have to walk a bit when you get off.
Admittedly I’m probably more willing to walk around than the average person, and not everyone is capable of walking that much, so like I said, still lots of room for improvement.
My biggest issue tends to be getting into the city in the first place, or getting from one city to another. From my home in the suburbs I can drive to pretty much anywhere in my nearest city in about an hour or less as long as I can avoid any major traffic jams. If I try to take public transportation though, im looking at an hour walk before I get to somewhere I can catch a bus (which only comes a handful of times a day,) and then a couple more hours before I get where I’m going, probably having to transfer to a different bus or train at least once along the way. If I drive a half hour or so to a train station then I can get right to downtown pretty easily, but the train only comes about every hour so if I don’t time it right and miss the train it’s significantly faster for me to just drive the rest of the way than wait for another train. Then they mostly stop coming at about 11pm, which means if I’m going into the city for a concert or something, I’m cutting it close and may not be able to get back home on public transit.
And if I’m trying to get to another city, I’m pretty much SOL. I’m basically at the halfway point between that major city and 2 smaller cities, and there is no transit options to get to those 2 other cities from where I am.
Why not to everyone’s front door?