Originally posted by john999
Trains are not cost effective for distances less than about 100km - i.e. most journeys of goods.
Light rail ? Don't make me laugh ! Look at LA.
Or Japan, or San Fransisco, or New York, or Berlin, or...oh, oops.
Just because someone implemented an idea badly doesn't mean that the entire concept is bunk.
Most people in USA do not live far away from work. The average journey to work is less than 20 minutes and is less than the average trip time in Australia, South Africa and Great Britain.
Of course, it can be a little bracing in places like Albany, NY...
Kind of curious where you get the facts for this one; it seems to me that most of the population of the U.S. lives in suburbia, and if most people didn't work that far away, why are the freeways jammed with commuters?