>

Drove back to school one time, counted 6 dead deer on the side of the road within 20 minutes.
And we are not by any forest where it was
This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >

You have to trust the other people not to do something idiotic too. >

Unfortunately this doesn't always work, I was tboned back in November by some silly prat driving a van, he shot out of a yield road on the right of a cross roads and struck my front drivers side wheel arch, that shunted me into a car waiting in the left yield road. My car was a write off, only had it for 7 months by that point -_- ended up off work with concussion for 3.5 weeks. >

how many months? >

I'm guessing they meant 7 >

That is correct XD >

Giant. Metal. Death. Machines. And people go as far as texting, eating, doin their freaking makeup! While operating one. F*ckin hell. >

Right?! One loose tire, a bad bump, some idiot texting, an icy road and boom dead or messed for life. Roads are scary >

"There were car gods there: a powerful, serious-faced contingent, with blood on their black gloves and on their chrome teeth: recipients of human sacrifice on a scale undreamed-of since the Aztecs."
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods >

I wish Americans had high speed rail gods instead 🥲 >

the problem is that America is big.  Like, really big.  there are countries that fit in some of our states.  he'll, there are multiple countries that can fit in just one state!
Rail is not feasible for most of the country as a regular transportation option.  
I was 12 miles *as the crow flies* from DC.  there was *zero* public transportation. >

China is just as big and has an extensive HSR network. The European continent is larger than the USA and even has practical HSR between major cities. The USA could have invested in rail and public transportation as well but has made and continues to make policy choices not to.
Edit: I didn't think it was necessary to point out that I'm talking about the continguous United States here and not Alaska and Hawaii >

As someone with experience as a transportation economist, there’s so much missing in what you’re saying that makes none of those regions even remotely comparable for rail infrastructure.
The size point is absolutely huge, and cannot be understated.  The US is larger than China, and its a fuckton larger than the EU.
By land area, the entire EU has 1.634 million mi² of land for ~448 million residents.
The US by land area is 3.797 million mi², or well over double the land area of the entire EU, with less than 350 million residents so everyone is vastly more spread out on average.
Secondly, you need to look at population distribution in that area.  I’ll give you a hint, almost 90% of China lives in less than 30% of its land mass, all clustered on the flat coastline, (96% of their population lives in the East against the coast with about 3.5% of the population living in the southwest, northwest, and northern regions of China combined) and no one lives in the majority of the country that is mountains, desert, and inhospitable wasteland— unsurprisingly, there is no rail anywhere near any of that.
For the US, all you need to do is look at a population density map, then look at an elevation map and look at The Great Divide. 
Nearly half of the US is mountainous and the elevation range almost a full three miles between the highest and lowest major cities.
Cross country rail is prohibitively expensive for anything West of Texas, and the areas that already makes sense for rail or that are economically feasible for such transportation. . . Kind of already has rail infrastructure in place?  The problem is, its mostly only feasible in the flat plains in the middle of the country, and even then its predominantly used for shipping raw materials and goods rather than transportation of individuals.
In cities like New York, Portland, LA, they either have rail systems already, or are developing them (LA Metro has a massive rail project underway currently) but these rail systems largely don’t make sense to extend beyond the metro areas for these cities. >

What changed between the 18-1900s and today that makes it so that rail is no longer economical when the US once had the most developed train system in the world? >

There is a whole lot at play here, so I hope you will be content with an overly simplified answer.
There are a couple of big changes.  Aircrafts existing is a major one that cannot go without mentioning.  For the US, one of the biggest obstacles to a cross country rail system for individual transportation is it doesn’t make sense when air travel exists already.
Consider a few hour flight from coast to coast for a business meeting or a family vacation compared to the time it would take by rail.
For instance, from Bangor ME to Seattle WA is a 2500 mile/4050 KM journey.  It would take over 90 hours, or nearly four entire days (3.75 days to be exact) by rail.  The same flight is 5.5 hours long, or only about 6% the length.  Its also roughly half the price for those plane tickets vs taking the train; not only is it  significantly faster to fly, its cheaper as well over long distances.
Clearly, the rail travel time is infeasible for anything that requires you be there in under four days, which also makes the time involved prohibitive for most business purposes unless planned well in advance— even then, you would need to compensate your workers for four days of travel— each way— for an additional at least 8 days you are paying them while they are doing no work and providing you no value; OR! You could send them on a plane and have to worry about 11 hours over two days which is much preferable, and will cost you less money by far.
For families traveling, the time involved is also prohibitive compared to air travel.  If you have a long weekend off work or school you don’t want to spend all your time off just getting to your location (much less getting back from it!).
Additionally, there is a massive amount of investment into rail infrastructure that’s necessary to improve any existing rail network or to add new lines to create a new network, and all the active lines need to be maintained, evaluated, etc whereas the necessary infrastructure for air travel is largely already in place and being maintained by existing businesses and travelers and expanding air travel don’t have to worry about the terrain on ground level between the two locations. In other words, the marginal cost of a new rail network to a new location is vastly higher than the marginal cost of flying a plane to an airport near that location, and in the US at least, the airports already exist. >

It sounds like the issue is that its uneconomical for private investment and so private companies wont go for it. But is there something about the current US that makes connecting the country by rail again wholly unfeasible or is this just an initial investment issue that makes private business unlikely to act on its own. The government has a lot more resources, after all, and can afford to be much more forward thinking than the average publicly traded company with quarterly reports to worry about. >

Oh you should see how people drive in the Philippines. I have never seen these mfs crash into eachother even though they drive so fucking close together and is completely legal to speed to drive in front of someone if they’re not going fast enough and even when turning into a road they can go anytime and the other people have to wait for them to get to the other side. It’s also allowed to fit multiple people onto the bed of a truck and it’s so fun. I swear these fuckin drivers have fast mf reflexes. I have NEVER seen a vehicle there with crash damage, at least yet. >

Having driven in South Asia and the US, I don’t think driving is the same everywhere. In the US, you are relying on the boring predictability of things for safety which makes people complacent and not able to react to unique situations. Vs driving in South Asia (and probably SE Asia) is an exercise in being constantly alert and ready to react to every situation. One important distinction is that vehicles in South Asia don’t go nearly as fast as those in the states precisely because of this unpredictability which means more crashes but less fatalities per crash than in the states. >

I was getting picked up from the airport by my aunt and she takes this van and makes a left turn (from the right lane) across 4 bumper to bumper lanes of traffic. >

Jesus >

And we trust a brightly coloured stripe of paint will keep them on their side. >

"rules" >


rules of the road

More of a suggestion, really. >

You can pay for the privilege to not respect them, technically. >

Just like ancient Rome.
And every major civilisation since. >

I'm a confident driver, but when I'm on two lane total highways at night I find myself thinking "dark out, feet away from oncoming trucks is not a very life compatible spot to be"
Edit: It makes me a little uncomfortable >

You don’t feel safer at night? I do on a motorcycle, that headlight in the dark is WAY more visible than me on a bike in the middle of the daytime. It’s easy to not be seen, unfortunately. >

Hello, fellow rider!  Have you heard about the Kauppi Weave?  When approaching an intersection with someone waiting to turn left across your path, drive right at them and swerve back and forth.  it makes your headlight appear to flash, and they'll most likely see you.  you don't have to scrape pegs in your weave...  a couple feet side to side is plenty. >


Kauppi Weave

Thanks for this information. I'll make sure to use this when riding. >

We're trusting the average person not to stray across a painted white line and destroy us and our family. >

I‘m just home after a 3 hour drive on which i did some parts with 200km/h ,.. 
I mean yes - super weird - but isn’t life about the risks you take ? >

Sometimes I think about this while driving down the highway and need to exit and take the back roads. >

Also barely clearing a semi truck’s front end before they cross over in their lane. Stupidity at its finest. >

Nothing stupider than entering a wagon's braking distance.
You're asking to die. >

Yet, if I hit and kill someone in my semi I’ll go to jail until I’m cleared. And even then I may still get sued. >

Google an interstate (edit: or motorway, autobahn, etc) in your area with “accident” and the name of your state and be shocked how often huge accidents happen, often with fatalities.   I narrowly missed being in one last month and tried to google it when I got home and was shocked to see huge accidents happened on a daily basis. >

About 43,000 people died in automobile accidents in 2021 (edit: in the US).
We just kind of accept it.  Crazy. >

What do you mean we kind of accept it? New cars are safer than ever >

Only safer for their occupants… vehicles are bigger and heavier which is much more dangerous for vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists) >

Sometimes, when The Anxiety grips me, I remember that the only thing keeping us from chaos is the generally understood laws of politeness and societal standards.
As in, the only thing stopping any of us from saying f*ck laws and driving on the wrong side of the road is the knowledge that people don't like when you do that. (And, you know, cops. But cops "don't like it when you do that," so I'm pretending it fits under that umbrella. )
Laws are fake and society is a veil and the illusion of time is a man made construct and I have a lot of unresolved existential dread. >

Remember! Reality's an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold! Byeeee! >

One time I was riding passenger in a car while I was on acid and I realized the whole system of control for these heavy pieces of metal rocketing at 100 km an hour is painted lines and colored light bulbs
Haven't been the same since >

That's because people usually respect them, because they don't want to die. Which is usually good motivation for humans. >

Or in a lesser severe case injured for life and be in debt for dozens of years. >

Anyone that’s seen Final Destination thinks about that shit every single time. >

I think about that every time I come up on a logging truck lol >

My 6 year old knows to never drive behind a logging truck >

In EU there is 2-3 seconds rule, you keep your distance in seconds, not meters. You search for an object that car in front of you will pass and you count to 2-3s. If you pass that object under 2s you are too close >

OP is talking about the cars going in the opposite direction — it'd be hard to maintain 2s from them at all times >

I don't think we have actual highways without a big divider between the sides?
Fastest road without divder i can remeber is 100kmh. >

There are plenty of roads in texas with 70mph speed limits with only a double yellow in between. So everyone drives 75mph (120kmh). >

And in Texas, they'll put traffic lights on roads like that! Insanity! >

Gotta love TxDot. Off topic but I applied for a position with the local TxDot, interviewed but didn’t get the job. Few days later the same position is back on the website so I apply again  and get another interview, lol. Did both interviews over zoom and the head interviewer had a smirk on her face when I popped into the meeting. Still didn’t get the job, lol. Few weeks later the same position was up again. I applied again but declined another interview. Probably didn’t help that I had asked about something in the job description and they had no idea what I was talking about. They pulled it up during the interview and pointed it out and they were like “oh….that’s not supposed to be in there. That wouldn’t be part of the job.” 🤷‍♂️ >

That's not a thing in Europe. You can only drive at highway speeds on highways, which are roads where a physical barrier is required between lanes of trafic going in opposite directions >

And literally no one complies. I've had people on European highways be 5 to 10m behind me while going 120km/h >

So what's the problem there? Speed limit on highways varies between 110 to 130 >

Lol i replied to the wrong comment apparently, my bad >

We all can agree on only one thing in this country and that is follow the rules of the road. >

Since when do people follow the rules of the road? >

There's rules? >

They be more like guidelines >

I always get an involuntary shiver when one passes very close >

The other cars don't bother me, it's the animals running all over the earth at night that scare me. Anytime we head north it's something I plan around. I was driving through south carolina at sunrise and it was like a warzone every few miles. Dead deer everywhere, and vehicles that looked they participated in a Twisted Metal tournament.