Originally Posted by Roughstuff
Gee I thought only Amerikans have car culture. Whats next..NASCAR in Manchuria?
(1) This may be true in certain cities and certain other places at certain times, but it is hardly always true. In many rural regions of developed countries the highway system has been adequate for decades.
(2) "Properly funded?" And just what is the definition of that? Too often government programs have the 'golden rule of funding:'
if they don't work, it's because they don't have enough money. If they do work, they obviously should receive more money. Public transit involves huge fixed costs; and if its a bus system, the buses are stuck in the very same traffic that cars are stuck in.
(3) The role of bicycles in the overall transportation system is a very small one. Commuters can use them for short distances in reasonable weather. But the vast majority of value added in transportation consists of moving goods and high income workers around. Bicycles can't ship things as large as airplane engines, as cold as ice cream, and aren't reliable enough for lawyers en route to a court hearing. Even avid cyclists have automobiles as backup system.
The Chinese fellow is right...cars change lives, and change them for the better, overall. With better fuel technology, restrictions on horsepower in urban areas, and other such changes, automobiles will do less environmental damage in the future.
roughstuff
Answer:
1. You can praise the rual life all you want but that is not going to fix Shanghai's problems. The people of China are not going to relocate in the middle of nowhere for jobs. The situation in Shanghai has been repeated countless times in cities all over the world. There is no turning back and once the roads are built and it will never be enough. Within 50 years, most of America will be living in cities and many burbs will be as large as cities today but the roads in use will be the same we have today.
2. Public transit involves huge fixed costs. Ageed.
But road construction cost much more than public transportation as noted by our billion dollar transportation bill that passed. We spent a fraction of the money on public transport but the majority of the funds will be used to construct additional beltways and freeways. Rapid bus transit systems like in South America do not exist in the U.S. or most cities because the motorist will not give an extra lane for this service. If we funded transit systems like we funded the interstate, would we need new highway construction?
3. How did we move goods and high income workers in 1904 which was a hundred years ago? There were no airplanes, motorcars or an interstate for that matter but high income workers did commute and good in large quantities did travel. In fact, this was the case in China until recently and continues in a handful of car free cities. The motor dependant society was a creation of the second half the 20th century and millions today have no idea how we got along without this machine prior to 1914.