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Comment by bananalychee | Hacker News Reader

China has a high-speed rail network whose size spans about half of the United States'. Some old US cities had better transit systems in the 1950s than they do now. No one expects every US city to be on the level of Tokyo, but there is no excuse for being so far behind.

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China has a different distribution of population I think. But yeah I agree the US can use some better railways. Then again I shiver at the cost.

Forget about the cost. Do you take public rail? I used to and even if the trains get 1000% better the people are still the same: talking loud, no respect for others, just all in their own bubbles.

This is the polar opposite of Europe. I've taken even the run down ugly german trains that they still run on irregular routes and even though the trains are antiquated, they make sense and get the job done. People are respectful even if the train is packed. I wouldn't want to go back to trains in America other than for sparse occasional trips.

I often look at maps like this and think maybe that would be amazing: https://i.imgur.com/srMhE1X.png

But then i'd probably just take an airplane for most trips because 1-2 hrs of leg cramps with a typically quiet passenger crew is better then a misbehaved train carriage.

Fixing the trains is not fixing the society. The trains are probably broken because the society is broken.

You can’t get away from it in this country short of moving into the woods. One of the neighbors has a motorcycle. Literally like clockwork when he comes home from work it shakes my apartment and sets off the same three aftermarket alarms from cars parked on the street. Every time. Last apartment neighbor a floor below me was into house music. Here even the army flies ospreys and chinooks overhead that shake everything for a good 30 seconds until they pass; I never knew a helicopter could be so loud. You can’t win. You have to learn to just roll over and take it.

People try. They move to neighborhoods with higher wealth. People hate to think about it but that is a indicator that reduces these kinds of nonsense things. They use cars instead of public transit and prefer politicians that vote for more of that. They are not even going out in public spaces as much anymore. I do concede that these are not perfect solutions and bring their own issues, so I guess you can't win. I am not sure if it was always like this though.

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