You can blame Robert Moses for that. Everyone that lives in NYC or NJ (or LI) should "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro and you will be blown away.
He despised public transportation (because he never learned to drive, he always had a driver) .He actively designed bridges (over highways) to be purposely low so that the highways could not have bus lanes. When he was building the highways and bridges, he knew that the solution was to combine them with subway lines to reduce traffic congestion but refused to because he was so arrogant and power hungry. His solution was always to widen existing highways or build more highways, and public transportation ridership went from very high in the 1920s to very low in the 1950s/60s.
He did build a lot of stuff, but you could argue that NYC in 2021 is a worse place because of it -- and you really could argue that if you had grandparents (or great-grandparents) that were evicted by his housing policies or construction projects.
While that's all interesting, unless Robert Moses was directing essentially every American city's development it's more than just his preferences that were at work.
I'm not all the way through the book, but I believe this is basically the point. Once Moses' "success" in NY became known, everywhere else in the US started to copy his approach. So he really did have a national influence.
Let's string wires on poles down every street in the nation and use them to put a device in every home that allows anyone in the world to ring a loud bell at any hour, day or night.
pathetic. the real money is if we blanket the planet in radio from high towers and poles, create thousands of types of mostly-incompatible portable wallet-sized devices that provide this ring-a-loud-bell functionality, make them requisite for daily life so everyone must purchase one to the tune of hundreds of dollars per year and keep it on their person, and then create an automated system that randomly rings every device multiple times per day trying to steal money. oh also they spy on everyone constantly and deliver incredibly volatile cognitohazards if you so much as look at them.
and we'll move on from this when we develop cheap brain implants that are even worse
Still sounds partly crazy to me (German). All those lines on poles in the US, I think the only lines here that are above ground are these super high voltage long distance power lines, anything else is underground (and safe from weather etc.)
Geology is one reason. Many major urban areas in the western US have a layer of caliche under the surface. Digging through 1m+ of natural concrete makes underground lines even more hideously expensive than they would otherwise be.
What do you mean not necessarily. Hyperloop sounds like a complete and utter fantasy. Closely followed by tunnels in LA where cars drive themselves actually.
Yes, who would get into a vehicle when the outside air pressure is below 5 PSI. I mean if the seals broke you could die, and for what to save on fuel costs. What’s next flying through the air in a flying brick instead of the naturally buoyant dirigible, just imagine what happens if the engine cuts out… It’s madness, madness I say!
to save on fuel cost but spend a lot of money running pumps to keep a tube near vacuum ? these people are insane... just like building a tunnel to drive a car back and forth and pretend like its some new innovation, if only they knew of trains and trains that move underground in tunnels.
Commercial jet aircraft fly at 30,000 feet ~4psi to save on fuel which also translates to higher speeds, which was the joke. Hyperloop was supposed to be lower at ~0.1 psi mostly to allow for higher speeds.
As to the effort to maintain a low vacuum, that has relatively minimal associated energy costs assuming the track is reasonably air tight.
I could live with this. Imagine that every street had a car tunnel under it; it means the space that's taken up by streets today could just be a pleasant park. There would be benches. Kids would be playing catch in them. Instead of loud honking because traffic moving slowly, there would be sunflowers and tall grass everywhere. I'll take it!
It would basically remove cars from cities, without actually removing cars from cities. Seems like a reasonable compromise to me.
They started building this kind of thing around London Walk after the war - rather than more tunnels the cars are at ground level and the walkways above. Best seen at the Barbican and in a newer flavour around JP Morgan’s new office nearby.
I think we just repurpose storm drains for that. Always bring a ladder with you in the trunk of the car!
(I'm kidding. Chicago has a mildly extensive two level street system, and there are just doors in the "basements" of buildings that open up to the subterranean streets. I always thought it was neat, but was also afraid to walk around on the lower level. Also, the top level wasn't parks, it was just more car lanes.)
He despised public transportation (because he never learned to drive, he always had a driver) .He actively designed bridges (over highways) to be purposely low so that the highways could not have bus lanes. When he was building the highways and bridges, he knew that the solution was to combine them with subway lines to reduce traffic congestion but refused to because he was so arrogant and power hungry. His solution was always to widen existing highways or build more highways, and public transportation ridership went from very high in the 1920s to very low in the 1950s/60s.
He did build a lot of stuff, but you could argue that NYC in 2021 is a worse place because of it -- and you really could argue that if you had grandparents (or great-grandparents) that were evicted by his housing policies or construction projects.