06-07-2008, 06:32 PM
[quote Acer]"Freight rail --- that thing from decades ago, before they priced themselves out of the market --- is making a comeback. "
Freight rail is another more-efficient method that has suffered because of de facto subsidies to the automobile and tractor trailer system. I don't think they priced themselves out of the market...rather, the public subsidies to the tractor-trailer haulers (more specifically, by building the roads they depend on for them) undercut them and they could not compete.
I am not saying we should not have built interstates. But instead of looking at the total transportation system to see what is the most efficient, sustainable way to get people and goods to where they need to go, we blew most of our cash on ONE mode: the automobile.
This is a fair assessment. We need to move beyond the 1940s and stop seeing the facilitation of personal motoring as some sort of manifest destiny.
Freight rail is another more-efficient method that has suffered because of de facto subsidies to the automobile and tractor trailer system. I don't think they priced themselves out of the market...rather, the public subsidies to the tractor-trailer haulers (more specifically, by building the roads they depend on for them) undercut them and they could not compete.
I am not saying we should not have built interstates. But instead of looking at the total transportation system to see what is the most efficient, sustainable way to get people and goods to where they need to go, we blew most of our cash on ONE mode: the automobile.
This is a fair assessment. We need to move beyond the 1940s and stop seeing the facilitation of personal motoring as some sort of manifest destiny.