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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   34791 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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Ok, but would other countries have such big freight thoroughfares in such sparse areas? Especially on roads, rather than trains? I think this is part of the point they are making: We say "wow, it sure is nice that we have these massive interstate roads connecting everything to everything in a direct way" but the cost isn't really considered. Regardless of the intent of 87, is there enough traffic of any kind to justify making it 2 lanes in each direction?

Ok, but would other countries have such big freight thoroughfares in such sparse areas? Especially on roads, rather than trains?

Yes, of course they would, especially if the freight thoroughfare connected two big population centers. Look at Spain or France, for example. And yes, especially on roads, rather than trains: US is the world leader in freight rail, other countries are less likely to use trains for freight than US.

Regardless of the intent of 87, is there enough traffic of any kind to justify making it 2 lanes in each direction?

Enough that the federal government wants to upgrade it to an interstate. That said the FHA thinks it's not that much traffic compared to other major routes. But it's not "nice to have direct connects" so much as the country functions because of the surface freight moving on those highways. And we've seen what happens trying to identify what is or is not essential from a business logistics perspective.

And we've seen what happens trying to identify what is or is not essential from a business logistics perspective.

I'm confused. You say that like it's a bad thing (which I would agree with) but the government building freight roads everywhere is doing just that. If you really want to let the market decide what's "essential" then the cost of shipping on them should reflect the actual cost of the roads, rather than being built by the federal government and used for free.

Probably not, but most other countries don't have to cover the sheer land area that the US does. As I understand it the impetus behind the interstate system is not freight routes (though that's nice), it's "what if we need to transport troops across the country if we get attacked". That's a legitimate need for any country, we simply have more area to cover.

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