• Mikina@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    How common/usable is subway in bigger cities? Here in Prague we have an amazing public transport, even with priority lanes for buses at some places and most importantly a pretty decent subway. I’ve never had an issue getting anywhere around the city in a short time (I can get anywhere in the city within 1.5 hour max (that is including suburbs around Prague), around 30 mins to places around the center), and the cost of an unlimited year-long ticket is just 150EUR.

    • GTG3000@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Oil and automotive companies literally tore most of public transport out in US way back when.
      They would invest into the local tram companies, buy them out, then close and tear out the lines.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      In the US, public transportation is pretty much unusable in bigger cities except for NYC.

      America has this weird, masochistic relationship with cars that just gridlocks everyone. But “FreEdoM.”

      • NotNotMike@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        One potential reason posited by The 1619 Project is due to white Americans moving out of metro areas after WW2 in order to “escape” black residents. Then, they restricted expansion of public transportation development to those areas because making them more accessible and usable would potentially result in a influx of poorer, black residents who can’t afford a car to commute to the suburbs.

        The specific example they used is Atlanta, which has staunch racial lines, horrible public transport, and some of the worst traffic in America. They make a very compelling case.

        Here is the relevant New York Times article about it and it’s Chapter 16 in the actual book

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s insanely bad. Hell, Canada has shown that public transit is viable with the North American development model, but the US simply refuses to invest money into public works.

      Vancouver SkyTrain and Montreal REM/Metro are both fast, highly efficient subway systems that are able to navigate single-family housing development. Why can’t the US?

      • nik282000@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Come to Toronto/The GTA, the lack of investment in public transit is on par with the rest of North America.

        • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          When I was in Toronto, the transit wasn’t great but it was at least better than Boston/Philadelphia…

      • MBM@lemmings.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s to the opposite side of the city, I’m guessing every day travel would be somewhere around those 30 mins