Hacker News Reader

Comment by sAuronas | Hacker News Reader

Cities like LA will become denser over time. It might seem counterintuitive but increasing density alleviate traffic (people walk).

You can't clean a hotel or flip a burger remote.

Public transit has failed to solve the problem despite a 100-year head start.

Cycling... in LA...

I don't think the Boring Company is trying to solve the gridlock. They will, however, provide an option for those who can afford to pop down into a Teslalane [sic] for a trip to the airport. And that's fine. It's [Teslalanes] infrastructure that ultimately helps the city thrive until the time that the land use patterns rebalance. There will always be traffic - but it won't always have the same overall impact.

View on HN

>Public transit has failed to solve the problem despite a 100-year head start.

I take objection to this because, aside from other cities where public transit is the norm, the interurban system in LA [0] was dismantled, partially because it was forced out by cars that increased congestion to the point that streetcars could no longer run on time, and partially because of car companies advocating that buses could replace the streetcars (they didn't).

Things don't exist in a vacuum, and LA decided to make itself a city where you could only be comfortable getting from place to place inside a car.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric

> Public transit has failed to solve the problem despite a 100-year head start.

Public transit SOLVED the problem 100 years ago in the US. And then it was sabotaged by the big automakers.

>Public transit SOLVED the problem 100 years ago in the US. And then it was sabotaged by the big automakers.

I think American Individualism sabotaged Public Transit when it realized it could avoid the public by using automobiles.

> Public transit has failed to solve the problem despite a 100-year head start.

So the question here really is "which would improve LA more: tunnels that carry trains, or tunnels that carry carts that hold single cars?"

There is plenty of strong evidence that shows adding additional road capacity increases overall traffic. I'm not sure that adding ways to move cars around faster wouldn't have the same impact, versus a train.

> Cities like LA will become denser over time.

If the boring company solves issues with personal travel then cities like LS will become less dense. There's a reason urban sprawl didn't exist before the car.

Exactly. Cycling in LA is suicide.

Solve this problem by actually building protected cycling infrastructure and you'll make cycling viable and increase the amount of cyclists.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com