It’s an analogy that demonstrates there is demand for high speed rail in very specific circumstances, as demonstrated by the private investments in the Florida project.
If you think their business plan is BS, you’re entitled to your opinion, but I’m betting you haven’t read that business plan, or even a summary of it.
You’re attacking me with assumptions, most of which are errant.
You know what’s ironic? I’m taking a pro business position on this issue. I’m not weighing in on use of public money or demand for high speed rail outside the Florida project, but you’re as angry as if I wanted to spend your tax dollars on high speed rail.
Are you opposed to the mere concept of high speed rail for the mere sake of it, in every American context?
I’ve walked the tracks for miles. Trains shake the ground a long way off, make a lot of sound even without whistles and horns. I get off long before I can see one; I stand far away. I think the person who gets run over at 70 mph is paying so little attention that another few seconds makes no difference.
You would be wrong to assume this.
Methamphetamine was first synthesized–in Japan–in 1919.
Fun Fact: Japan’s Kamikaze pilots were doped with Methamphetamine prior to taking-off on their death missions, in order to give them “courage”. 
So much for clear thought and free will…
As long as there are humans, humans will do stupid things. They will also do deliberate things to kill themselves and others.
If governments and police are worried about drunk drivers, how come so many bars have parking lots? Who is expected to park there? Sober drivers? Maybe, on the way in, but the whole point is to drink alcohol there, so it seems pretty obvious that everyone leaving has a high risk of being legally drunk.
Personal responsibility is the key here. Last time I was in Germany I drove from Frankfurt to the Dutch border on E3, a six lane expressway without speed limits. Every so often there were roadside service centers and they all served alcohol! I saw a German down several Schnapps (a high alcohol liqueur) and drive off at 100 mph in his Mercedes.
I started consuming alcohol at age 10 with my parents’ permission and drank hard liquor at age 15, the legal drinking age in Holland at that time.
Traffic fatalities on European expressways are one half the US rate, in spite of the high speed limits and liberal drinking laws.
I wasn’t talking about their business plan. I was talking about your post. Nice try.
Let’s end our debate here. Let’s get back to the subject at hand, that is if you’re capable of doing so. Another of your circular-logic posts and I’ll have to assume you aren’t. You’re using all the typical diversionary tricks to not take responsibility for what you’re really saying. There’s no point in continuing to play your game with you.
Possible factors in the downward trend of deaths per 100 million miles driven may be the increasing traffic congestion on our roadways, it’s hard to have a fatal wreck when traffic doesn’t let you drive any faster than 35 mph, and the fact that the majority of cars on our roads are transporting one person.
The states of Montana and New Mexico have some of the highest deaths per 100 million miles mostly because there’s no traffic there and you can go 70-80 mph, even on two lane country roads.
Your hostile attacks against me notwithstanding, I’ve stuck to the issue we were discussing, high speed rail and whether it can be implemented in the US without increasing deaths at railroad crossings. I believe it can, and should be where there is demand for it. It was your straw man attacks and anger to which I’ve responded, and you think I should give you the last word? Fat chance.
Every great idea has had detractors who said it couldn’t be done. I prefer not to be one of those.
Of course, he would be breaking German DUI law…
;-]
Back to cars from trains, buses, bikes. Just a comment from what some whipper snappers see as an old guy, but could we dial down the insults a little. I understand you all have your pet issues and get upset when others don’t share them, but this is a car site after-all, not an anti-car site. When I see some of these old threads and all of the people that no longer come here to comment, I wonder if the harsh comments and rigid ideas might have driven some away-a lot of folks AWOL. I can’t believe they were all that old and just died off.
Two schnapps would not do it; the point I’m making is that Europeans in general are more responsible drivers and don’t need to treated like children. That driver in question would not drink 4 schnapps and drive 100 mph.
Bing, I’ve been on this site a very long time and have welcomed diverse points of view. We do have a diehard group that opposes increased gasoline taxes to partially fund public transit and commuter trains.
If you take a trip to Japan and try to visualize that country without commuter trains, you would see a country in complete gridlock. Smart countries try to empower all forms of transportation; Germany and France have superb highways and also world class train and public transit service.
According to this, two drinks could get 'Hans" to the 0.05 legal limit:
I didn’t assume, I observed my own experience and accounts of people who have been run over by trains: they weren’t paying attention, were stuck, or were taking their chances on beating the train and weren’t within seconds of making it, mostly the first 2.
When I was in the Czech republic, our tour bus stopped at a highway rest stop on the route to Germany (a genuine unimproved German Autobahn from the late '30s) so that we could have a toilet and refreshment break. While the one cotton towel in the men’s room made an impression on me (negative, of course…) and the swarms of flies buzzing around everyone’s heads inside the rest area were surely world-class, I was much more… impressed… by the fact that these highway rest stops served beer, and the locals were consuming it non-stop.
Incidentally, while those '30s-era Autobahns were surely better than anything in The US at that time, by the '90s when I was there, they were nothing more than outmoded old roads with ridiculously short acceleration and deceleration lanes. We have come a very long way in high-speed road design since then.
In the Boston area there are 2-3 people or cars every year get hit by trains. Most are just injured. Usually happens at or near the train station where the train isn’t traveling fast. Just last week a woman was struck at the Lawrence station. Which surprised me…I know that station very well. I haven’t personally counted, but I’ll bet there are well over 100 train/car crossings. And I’m not even counting the Boston subway system…I’m just counting the commuter rails. In Boston - triple that amount.
All conditions that are time based that would be affected differently by the difference in speed between 30 mph train versus a 150 mph train. Thanks for providing examples.
Considering the number of train crossings, the 2-3 number is pretty low. That area has had train service for 150 or more years. People grow up with trains. Riding them and co-existing with them.
That is a good example of the culture in and around the Boston area and northeast in general being the difference in train-car and train-pedestrian accidents. Locals know to watch out for trains!