this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Fuck Cars

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Anything but trains.

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[–] palozano@infosec.pub 12 points 22 hours ago

I bet they will do a "special track" for them

[–] AccoSpoot1@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Build a train you fucken cowards

🚂🚃🚃🚃

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You can always trust in the US-americans to do the right thing, after having exhausted every other possible option.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Trouble is, every time you think they've hit rock bottom, they'll find a new depth to sink to.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They should explore eminent domain and build real transit.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

We already did that then tore it all out and let the railroads keep the property and money they schemed, scammed and straight up stole.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But what if there aren't enough minority neighbourhoods to bulldoze?

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The farmland between LA and SF isn't minority neighborhoods. But my comment was more an off the cuff dismissal of this ass-backward bus idea than an actual policy opinion. Here's a real policy opinion: Stop making excuses and run the fuckin trains.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There you have your problem: That farmland belongs to rich white people.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Aye, that's a bit of a pickle.

But I find pickles delicious.

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 hours ago

Forgive my pickle decadence

Land isn't an issue for high speed rail in CA (anymore), so... high speed busses with dedicated lanes is extra silly.

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

So trams are not on their mind ?

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 128 points 2 days ago (7 children)

The American mind is just incapable of comprehending trains

[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

We've been force-fed this line of bullshit about cars being freedom. Public transportation is for freaks and losers. I mean. GM and Standard Oil say so!

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 57 points 2 days ago (9 children)

We can comprehend just fine. There's a project, California High Speed Rail, under construction to connect these two cities. The trouble is that our political and economic systems have become so sclerotic that China has built an entire HSR network since work on this line began, and it won't even be done before 2031.

We can still build highways, because the political and regulatory mechanisms to create them were fine-tuned as the system crystalized into inflexibility.

Frankly, this exact inability of U.S. society to change and adapt to new conditions was the signal indicator of the incipient collapse, for me.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There’s a project, California High Speed Rail, under construction to connect these two cities.

Proposition 1A passed in 2008, followed by the awarding of federal stimulus funds in 2010.

The California HSR was a plot point in the second season of True Detective, which began production in January of 2014.

18 years later, the Phase One between San Francisco and Anaheim is still under construction.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Trying to turn I5 into the autobahn with a 140 mph bus lane would result in so much chaos and destruction that honestly I'm all for it.

There is 0 chance that the average American drivers liscense having brain could comprehend this concept.

Most people can't even keep an actually reasonable following distance, or understand the concept of a passing lane.

This is a literally comically stupid idea, its a B movie plot element from an 80s scifi movie.

Fuck it -> Do it for the lols.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is a literally comically stupid idea, its a B movie plot element from an 80s scifi movie.

[–] babysmokesalot@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

So... that shot actually largely did rely on the laws of physics.

They really did jump a bus.

They just CGI'd out the ramp that got the bus's nose up, and CGI'd out part of the landing zone, to make up a jumped gap that looked more impressive.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NPhNIS69ayQ

This was back before you could just CGI generate an entire scene like this... you had to actually do a lot of it for real.

See if you can spot which exact shots/cuts/parts of shots are real, and which are fake, in that sequence.

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[–] COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 36 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I thought they ate the onion but somehow this appears to be an actual serious study. I can't imagine how uncomfortable a bus going 140mph would be. At that point the engineering required to keep the road in appropriate shape is likely more expensive than just using rails...

[–] Humanius@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Once again, the Onion has predicted the news before it happens..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNixDlRoMvA

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The reason for busses is simple and seems to be ignored by literally everyone.

The private property between SF and LA keeps increasing in price so the costs for the project are in the billions before anything is even built. The signing of the land is in the billions. Now build a rail in Trump's economy and it becomes nearly impossible to succeed at anything rail.

Busses builds an audience that can be used to later justify rail to get buses off the road. Americans hate big trucks on the road but there they are anyway. It's a slow burn turn to morph the car brain into train brain.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The private property between SF and LA keeps increasing in price so the costs for the project are in the billions before anything is even built.

Damn, if only eminent domain existed

[–] lama@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Even with eminent domain though you still have to pay market value. Edit: Not that they shouldn't do it. It would still be worth it in the long run

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Governments can have a funny way of determining market value based on whether they like you or not.

Just point to a row of buildings and declare "slum clearance". Suddenly, you can get them for a steal.

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Ahaha nonono. The problem is that the land is owned by white people. If it were owned by black people, then it would already have been bulldozed.

[–] teft@piefed.social 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Weird how cities used eminent domain to bulldoze entire black and Hispanic neighborhoods to build highways yet can’t use eminent domain to get some rich assholes overpriced real estate for this.

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[–] BozeKnoflook@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Wow, 140MPH! That's ... still 84MPH slower than the fastest trains in Europe, and 127MPH slower than the fastest train in Asia (Shanghai maglev).

These stupid fantasies are still a pale shadow of what the rest of the world has already managed to achieve. Just finish building the fucking train already!

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[–] kieron115@startrek.website 13 points 2 days ago

There is no amount of traffic that would make me consider getting in a robot-controlled 140 mph bus lmao.

[–] nbsp@programming.dev 21 points 2 days ago

recycling the classics

Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNixDlRoMvA

[–] Lev@europe.pub 19 points 2 days ago

Everything but rail, huh?

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are already rails between LA and SF. Why not use them?

[–] Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Because it takes 8+ hours.

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