[lstodd]

Where I lived all this summer the only transport infrastructure that was available for the last 80 years since the reservoir dam was completed was an old diesel tractor and an equally old motorboat with an evil 2T outboard, or a 3 km walk to a pier that was being visited by a 1957-built ferry twice a day, if it did not break down.

Then there are two to four months in a year when there is no transport except a single emergency services hoverboat while the ice settles or melts. Depending if it didn't break down, there isn't any emergency elsewhere, and a host of lesser things, like hovercraft travel isn't exactly cheap or fuel-efficient.

And then snowmobiles in winter. But also cars, if you're not afraid enough to test the ice thickness by driving on it.

That is an immutable property of the land.