Blog Challenge: Day 8
There’s a pretty heavy side to this question but I think I’ve been drowning in heavy things recently so I think I’ll stick with something much lighter that I miss; public transportation. I’ve done a lot of traveling and I have one thing to say to my home country, “HOW THE HELL DO WE NOT HAVE FUNCTIONAL RAIL SYSTEMS?”
Seriously, America. It’s the 21st first century and we don’t even have a functioning national rail system. I can get from London to Barcelona using public trains and a bus in about 20 hours but it takes about 40 hours to get from Denver, Colorado to Dallas, Texas. Those of you familiar with geography might note that the London to Barcelona trip requires passing through not only the god damn English Channel but also an entire freaking country. That particular trip is about 1500 kilometers (approx. 932 miles) while the 40 hour Denver to Dallas haul is approx. 1287 kilometers (800 miles). Some of you might also note that a trip from Denver to Dallas passes over exactly no bodies of water and remains very much within the same country.
Which leaves me with just one question; how. How can our current national public transportation be outrun by a freaking horse? How is it easier to travel a conglomerate of different countries that rarely, if ever, agree on anything than it is to travel between states in the US? I can get from an island in the North Sea to a beach on the Balearic in less than a day but I can’t get from one major city to another in states that nearly touch each other in less than 24 hours?
Never mind that building railroads would be a great way to stimulate the economy and make the roads a hell of a lot safer as people started using the rails to transport cargo long distance rather than forcing truckers to be on the road for ridiculous hours. Never mind that we wouldn’t have to do as many costly repairs on our highways if we didn’t have as many heavy semis on the road. Never mind all that, I’d just like to know how we’ve managed to go so freaking long without providing our citizens with the sort of transportation that I’ve only had to go without in Cambodia.
And hell, even if someone comes up with some excuse for why we don’t have functioning rail systems nationally, no one can explain to me why the hell we don’t have them in cities. Sure, some of the “Welcome to Nowhere! Population: 100 and some cows” sort of towns probably aren’t going to have a lot of reason to have something like a metro/tram/underground but I’m talking about places that are fairly decent sized.
The top ten most populated cities in the US are:
1. New York, New York
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Houston, Texas
5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6. Phoenix, Arizon
7. San Antonio, Texas
8. San Diego, California
9. Dallas, Texas
10. San Jose, California
I haven’t visited all of these places but from my personal experience of those that I have, I can say I’m honestly embarrassed at the state of things. New York lines exist but are over crowded, not well policed, their maps when I was there were cryptic, at best (I legitimately had more success figuring out the Tokyo rail system in Japanese than I did the New York metro). If you use them during the day, be wary of pick pockets. If you use them in the evening, be wary of rape and murder. And if you use them in summer, don’t. Just don’t. Everything smells of piss. Like just sun baked piss. The only place that smells worse is probably some of the Chicago lines.
Los Angeles transport is a joke. Just straight up expect to be murdered by every car in the city if you attempt to walk or ride your bike never mind waiting for a bus. Now this might have just been me but the LA buses never seemed to go to where I needed them to go and if one went even remotely near, the waiting was ridiculous. Now, in fairness, I’ve heard they’re trying to make improvements, I guess? I haven’t been to LA in a while (and don’t plan on returning, honestly), so I don’t know if the city is just running campaigns or if the transport situation there is actually improving.
Now Chicago, Chicago is about like New York but with, as I mentioned, slightly dirtier metro cars and with pre-darkness murder hours. Houston’s metro didn’t even exist until like 2004 or 2005. It didn’t go anywhere I needed to get to so I never had a chance to use it. If San Antonio has a public transportation system, it’s made of ninjas.
All of these cities have estimated populations of over a million. Over a million people with either no access to public transport or access to pretty shitty public transport. I’ve been to European cities with a population around a hundred thousand that had better transportation than the top ten highest populated cities in the US. We brag about being a power house but we can’t even provide basic civic functions for our people. It’s ridiculous and I’m honestly rather sick of America’s shit.
