17% of the US's Infrastructure & Jobs Act goes to transit. 67% goes to conventional highway programs

Relevant xkcd:

Imagine seeing 69 random strangers walking down the street, densely packed in like that, for no reason. Just comin at you.

A lot of those "highway programs" include things like removing barriers to aquatic organism passage, reducing congestion and emissions from the movement of cargo, and other things that don't suck. It's still weighed too heavily in favor of cars and highways for sure, but there's more getting funded by the IIJA & IRA than just, like, freeways.

Are you not into trains trams?

TBF US highways are undermaintained and a collapse could endanger lives.

I'd rather have a railway expansion but we still gotta maintain whats been built.

That's WRONG! That's not how autonomous cars work!! They are AUTONOMOUS that mean you can get rid of (at least!) half the people and still have as many cars!

While I'm a strong proponent of reducing and possibly eliminating car use, this image is disingenuous. They neatly packed 69 (nice) people into a medium bus, sure. But when showing cars, it's almost 1 persons per car (I counted 15 cars in a row and there are 4 rows, so 60 cars). You can definitely use cars more efficiently than that.

Assuming that actually autonomous self-driving cars exist, they could be extremely efficient. Especially if you treat them like ride sharing taxis. In other words, a lot of people could share the same car and that would reduce the amount of owned cars. They also never waste space being parked. So I can see how when we make a real self-driving car, it can potentially reduce traffic. Especially for all those cases where public transportation doesn't work.

And what the heck is a "connected car"?

Thinking of riding a bicycle so close to others at any speed scares me a bit.

Explain to me how you solve the mass transportation issue in non metro areas. I live in Montana, where cities are an hour or three apart by vehicle, but even in said cities, outside of the main commercial areas, people are spread out. Like, really spread out. There is a single bus stop eight blocks from my house, with exactly four scheduled pickup/dropoff times. My kids go to school with other kids who live twenty miles away. Commercial rail doesn't exist, except for a single cross-country Amtrak line with a station four hours away from here.

Images like this are illustrative, but they completely ignore the physical reality of how vast swathes of the US are laid out. You can't just flip a switch and have bus stops on every corner and rail lines connecting your major cities and residential areas. That's a massive undertaking that would cost way more in up front infrastructure than maintaining and augmenting existing highway program already does.

How do you change the culture away from cars where there is literally no realistic way to do it for 99% of people in areas like this? And how do you push for infrastructure change when there is no anti-car culture? It's a chicken and egg problem where you have no chickens and you have no eggs.

Why are the cars spaced but the walking humans not?

69 people, eh?

another 20 years of progress put on pause.

aint democracy great lol

Wheres the light rail?

have you ever seen normies riding bikes that close? it doesnt end well. lol
not everyone has the coordination to ride in a peleton.

Im a 69 person.

nice

At least the last one involves far fewer parking lots.

Completely agree with your point, not trying to detract or anything, but why 69?

Hope that bus is going to 69 very separate locations some of which are at least 20 miles from the closest urban area and in opposite directions to accommodate those who cannot afford or don't want to live in a city.

Walking: Can't cover large distances quickly. Not sure why that's even included in this?

Bus: Pollution source whether it carries passengers or not. No service in rural areas. 1 crash = 69 people injured. Pathogen hotbox. You can't smash in one.

Bicycle: 1 thunderstorm = misery. Limited range and can't travel on motorways/freeways.

Car: Only pollutes when you use it. Goes anywhere you want 24/7/365. You can definitely smash in one. Carries big things like a trolley full of groceries or IKEA furniture.

E-Cars etc.: All the benefits of the car plus no pollution. Huge smugness boost.