• subversive_dev@lemmy.ml
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    22 days ago

    Rail is fundamentally superior to roads + cars at an engineering level.

    All at the same time:

    • Rail has a smaller footprint

    • Rail moves multiple times more people or cargo per hour

    • Rail has multiple times more fuel efficiency

    The fact that USA’s policy has been designed to favor cars only makes them more ‘practical’ than rail if you consider political constraints more binding than physics constraints.

    I’ll grant that trucks have tighter turning radii and maximum operating grade. If we truly only used them when those characteristics are needed THAT would be ‘practical’