Is it just me, or is it a bit arrogant to assume that because X can do something, why can't Y do it?
It would be, but here we are comparing a clear “underdog” with one of the most prospering economies in the world, and the underdog won.
Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
21–30 of 156 posts
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#22As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. "If it doesn't benefit me why should I pay taxes for that?" See the whole healthcare system. "I'm healthy, never sick why should I pay the cancer treatment of those who are obese and smoke all the time?" That's totally different in Europe. Not just in the nordic countries but generally everywhere. So the same applies for public t…
> As an outsider from Europe: what I see that americans hate any publicly funded projects. [...]
America has become a rat-ship. It is filled with folks that have amazing ideas of how to spend other people's money. Don't be disdainful when the people whose money you have pissed away start getting upset at "grand ideas". We see it as more of the same mostly: corruption, shitty-quality infrastructure, and handouts ("jobs" programs). Rarely do these "grand ideas" translate into real benefits over the long term.
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#23California is terrible at managing infrastructure projects.
You can omit “infrastructure projects”.
California is terrible at managing.
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#241. It resulted from the era of rapid economic growth.
2. East Asian countries generally value the greater good for all more.
3. There was no stereotype against train travel, and having HSRs was generally considered as a national pride.
Nowadays, it's also difficult to do any large scale infrastructure project in Taiwan, because the economy stagnates and the two-party political system is kinda gridlocked .
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#25For an article with quite a few numbers, it seems to be missing some basic ones: * Taiwan, area 36,197 km^2, population density 651 / km^2 [1] * California, area 403,932 km^2, population density 97 / km^2 [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
How does BART compare?
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#26I think it's because in the U.S absolutely anyone can tie up this stuff in the court systems for years. There are a lot of environmentalists who have been working overtime to stop this thing. For example: https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/10/24/high-speed-rail-l... . There are seven environmental lawsuits against this thing. How much do you think the legal bills are? There will likely be many more.
Edit: There are a couple of regularly glitchy things about how American government works. They are:
#1 : Public Employees Unions who negotiate with themselves for sweet pension deals.
#2 : Suits against various government agencies by individuals that wind up being paid for by taxpayers. For example, school districts getting sued for something a janitor did and then taxpayers having to pay for it as if they were a private business and the taxpayer is the owner.
#3 : Environmental lawsuits to stop government infrastructure projects.
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#27For an article with quite a few numbers, it seems to be missing some basic ones: * Taiwan, area 36,197 km^2, population density 651 / km^2 [1] * California, area 403,932 km^2, population density 97 / km^2 [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
How does BART compare?
It doesn't exist in 99% of California by area
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#28For an article with quite a few numbers, it seems to be missing some basic ones: * Taiwan, area 36,197 km^2, population density 651 / km^2 [1] * California, area 403,932 km^2, population density 97 / km^2 [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
The total area of the state isn't too relevant, since California isn't exactly proposing to build HSR to Eureka or Redding.
It's true that California's project is larger-scale, but by 2x: Taiwan has a single 200-mile HSR line, and California is trying to build a single 400-mile line.
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#29For an article with quite a few numbers, it seems to be missing some basic ones: * Taiwan, area 36,197 km^2, population density 651 / km^2 [1] * California, area 403,932 km^2, population density 97 / km^2 [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Taiwan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...
That's a nonsequitur. The California coast is pretty dense, the rest of the state has large amounts of empty space and national parks. Nobody would build a high-speed rail through Yosemite or Death Valley.
Re: Taiwan managed to build high-speed rail. Why can't California?
#30The fact that taiwan is much poorer also means that the labor cost for construction is much lower
Taiwan imports construction workers from much poorer Southeast Asian countries. http://www.cedaw.org.tw/en/upload/media/Capacity%20Building/...
US cannot do that either (for political reasons). The optics aren't great, "murrican jobs" and all