• NaibofTabr
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    1 year ago

    So what did we do before we had widespread cargo trucking?

    Agrarian society - wagons and hand carts.

    they organized their towns and cities around rail

    Towns and cities were significantly smaller and less complex. Rail does not scale. Adding new rail spurs is prohibitively time-consuming and inflexible.

    Seriously, how would you propose to handle citywide garbage/recycling collection with light rail and no motorized vehicles? (Just for instance).

    • teuast@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Your history is wrong. We had begun industrializing about 100 years before trucks were invented and more like 160 before they really became dominant.

      And are you literally arguing that building rail is more cost prohibitive, time consuming, and inflexible than building roads? Like actually? Unironically? I’m sorry, buddy, but when you start getting into numbers, that’s my territory and you’re out of your depth. https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/2014/01/11/rails-vs-roads-for-value-utilization-emissions-savings-difference-like-night-and-day/

      If only we properly invested in history education in this country. Then maybe people wouldn’t be embarrassing themselves by making arguments like yours.

      • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        We had begun industrializing about 100 years before trucks were invented and more like 160 before they really became dominant.

        We enslaved, hurt, and killed millions of horses.

      • NaibofTabr
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        1 year ago

        This only addresses passenger transit and none of the logistics issues which have been my actual argument.

        This is not practical for transporting cargo around a moderately sized urban area. It never will be.