Deservedly so
Our rail system is shit
I think most of the world probably has a better rail system than the US
We are forced to use cars or aircraft
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
331 points (99.1% liked)
Fuck Cars
11311 readers
125 users here now
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
Rules
1. Be Civil
You may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.
2. No hate speech
Don't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
3. Don't harass people
Don't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.
4. Stay on topic
This community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.
5. No reposts
Do not repost content that has already been posted in this community.
Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.
Posting Guidelines
In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
- [meta] for discussions/suggestions about this community itself
- [article] for news articles
- [blog] for any blog-style content
- [video] for video resources
- [academic] for academic studies and sources
- [discussion] for text post questions, rants, and/or discussions
- [meme] for memes
- [image] for any non-meme images
- [misc] for anything that doesn’t fall cleanly into any of the other categories
Recommended communities:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The first time I went on opentrainmap and looked at the "electrification" layer I thought there had to be a bug. All my life I had assumed the US had at least some high-voltage main lines but no. Almost 0 overhead lines, basically only metros are electric. My European brain can't comprehend not being able to take a 1h train ride to the next city over
Hey hey, we have shit rail infrastructure also.
Wait seriously? I guess yeah I've never seen rail when I've been in NZ, does the land not really accommodate or something?
So many reasons.
But smallish population and a big distance between major population centers means rail is expensive. Relative to population size.
But also the government (for the last 40 years) hasn't prioritized investment in rail. It is always roads, always.
But smallish population and a big distance between major population centers means rail is expensive. Relative to population size.
This is also true for roads. Prioritizing roads is ideologically motivated.
would airports be better? they have better max distance per cost figures, but are more expensive per passenger.
Flying doesn't need as much infrastructure so that's definitely a factor. I couldn't find the cost per passenger kilometer to compare so I can only say that flying emits much more co2 than every other form of transportation. Since climate change is going to cost us a lot I'd say the cost of flying exceeds the costs of car resp. train infrastructure.
roads and rail also emit co2 though, and require regular maintenance that emits still more. at some point (perhaps it would be less than a flight per year) flying would emit less than the maintenance of infrastructure.
I guess I get it, that still sucks.
That’s the result of 40 years of trickle-down failing to trickle down. Had we taxed our wealthy, we too would have advanced infrastructure.
It's not the amount of taxes, it's where the money is going. Big oil and car companies spend millions lobbying the government not to build or fund rail.
We wouldn't even have needed to increase their taxs (we still should) car infrastructure is so horrendously expensive that they would have been saving money by investing more in rail and transit instead of "just one more lane bro"
China's mocking posts have been seriously on point as of late. Keep em coming, guys! Nothing gets to dumb people more than being mocked!
Let the meme wars begin .
China posting meme about trains, eggs, things like this, is humorous!
WTF is going on? Meme diplomacy with memes, LLM and diss tracks? I don't want to find to find this funny, but it kinda is. Still, SILENCE, ~~BRAND~~ STATE
Trump used twitter and memes as a form of communication during his first term and is continuing this term.
China is just using his preferred form of communication: shitposting.
Well, so far China is winning.
Soundbites to memes. It sort of makes sense.
A shaken Stephen Miller is trying to figure out which family members he can threaten to deport to gain leverage over the ‘epic rap battles’ guys, so they can beatbox us into WW3.
Hopefully they mock Australia as well and deservedly so, our rail system is laughable
This is what superpower competition should look like.
Excellent piece of propaganda! 👏
E: The word propaganda does not mean the material is wrong.
😂 this platform is too full of reactionaries. This is literally the definition of propaganda. I'm not saying it's bad at all, but it IS propaganda.
Excellent at that! ☺️
Hey now that's an unfair comparison to freight trains. Just because the Amtrak never showed up doesn't mean you can't find a photo of it.
When are they adding memes to cultural victory requirements in civilization games?
Well our trains are definitely mock worthy. Can't be mad at that.
inb4 some come and say it makes america look badass
I hate that nations are trying to meme on each other. Communicating as a fucking country used to have at least the veneer of decorum.
I disagree. You have to speak in a language people are willing to understand. More memes about things that improve the lives of citizens, please. Tear us down for our shitty infrastructure.
I'd absolutely apply for a head memer cabinet position that shit would be so much fun.
I lol'd when A1 steak sauce responded to Linda McMahon talked about A1 education.
Weirdly both sided comment. There's one nation acting erratically, disrespectful, and without an ounce of decorum. Then, there's a nation that, instead of cowering in fear as it used to be, responds to clown behavior with humor. Which is probably for the best.
Im Canadian. Dont lecture me on the US being disrespectful.
Well, decorum is only useful if there are actors who can use decorum to gain political capital. US Democrats and Republicans may have played out decorum, because they thought it was expected of them, but few understood what it is for. MAGA doesn't use it or if they use it, then as a political weapon against those who don't understand it. I guess decorum itself is changing too.
Personally I agree with this take, but you undermine your own point with the completely gratuitous (and indecorous) "fucking" tossed in there. IMO.