The US Needs to Build More Subways

[beijingwalker]

The US Needs to Build More Subways
US is not building any new subway lines

 

[beijingwalker]

This illustrates the development speed between China and US, my home city, Beijing, just one city, openned 9 new subway lines on the last day of 2021, while in US, the whole country, isn't having anything going on in this regard.

 

[SaadH]

Subways are a commie invention, they have no use for rich, billionaires and corporation. The only entities that matter in the US.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

This illustrates the development speed between China and US, my home city, Beijing, just one city, openned 9 new subway lines on the last day of 2021, while in US, the whole country, isn't having anything going on in this regard.

Again people talking without looking closely at the facts.

A subway is only justifiable if a city has the ridership population to support it. There's only 11 cities in the US with a population of over a million people (and many are in Texas) so it just isn't practical in most places.

Beijing has a population of over 20Million people. That's almost the total of our top 10 cities.

The city of Boston is at less than 700,000 and doesn't have the ridership to fully fund the maintenance of the subway...and you always like to point out about decaying infrastructure in cities.

Largest US Cities by Population 2024

worldpopulationreview.com

Rank	Name	State	2021 Pop.	2010 Census	Change	Density (mi²)	Area (mi²)
1	New York City	New York	8,230,290	8,190,210	0.49%	27,400	300.38
2	Los Angeles	California	3,983,540	3,795,510	4.95%	8,494	468.96
3	Chicago	Illinois	2,679,080	2,697,480	-0.68%	11,783	227.37
4	Houston	Texas	2,323,660	2,100,280	10.64%	3,630	640.19
5	Phoenix	Arizona	1,733,630	1,449,040	19.64%	3,349	517.67
6	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	1,585,010	1,528,280	3.71%	11,804	134.28
7	San Antonio	Texas	1,581,730	1,332,300	18.72%	3,261	485.11
8	San Diego	California	1,427,720	1,305,910	9.33%	4,381	325.88
9	Dallas	Texas	1,347,120	1,200,350	12.23%	3,965	339.74
10	Austin	Texas	1,011,790	806,164	25.51%	3,162	319.94
11	San Jose	California	1,009,340	954,940	5.70%	5,677	177.81
12	Fort Worth	Texas	942,323	748,441	25.90%	2,727	345.58

Subways in the US
New York City population: 8.2M
Washington DC population: 692,000
Chicago population: 2.6 million
Boston population: 685,000
San Francisco population: 874,000
Philadelphia population: 1.5 million
Atlanta population: 488,000
Los Angeles population: 3.9 million
Miami population: 484,000
Baltimore population: 609,000
Cleveland population: 385,000


Now lets take a look at the cities outside the US he mentioned
Madrid Spain population: 3.223 million
Brussels population: 1.2Million
Paris population: 2.1 million
London population: 8.9 million
Berlin population: 3.6 million
Munich population: 1.2 million
Athens population: 3.1 million
Rome population: 2.8 million
Canada
Montreal population: 1.78 million
Toronto population: 2.93 million

 

[beijingwalker]

Again people talking without looking closely at the facts.

A subway is only justifiable if a city has the ridership population to support it. There's only 11 cities in the US with a population of over a million people so it just isn't practical in most places.

The city of Boston is at less than 700,000 and doesn't have the ridership to fully fund the maintenance of the subway...and you always like to point out about decaying infrastructure in cities.

Then why US used to have the world longest subway lines? you used the same argument to counter high speed railway building in US, are you saying based on US situation, no new public infrastructure is needed anyway?

And even if US doens't need high speed railways and new subway lines, how about spending some money to upgrade the already existed old subways ?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Then why US used to have the world longest subway lines?

Have you not been listening to me after I talk about suburbanization all the time? Incomes getting higher after WW2 and people moving to single family housing in the suburbs instead of living in cramped cities?
US: rural->urban->suburban
China: rural->urban

The population of the US is around 329 million and now only about 20Million of that remain in our top 10 biggest cities. That's a minority. Can you do the math in your head?

 

[Stranagor]

Then why US used to have the world longest subway lines? you used the same argument to counter high speed railway building in US, are you saying based on US situation, no new public infrastructure is needed anyway?

And even if US doens't need high speed railways and new subway lines, how about spending some money to upgrade the already existed old subways ?

Or, if they are so obselete, US should close them down altogether. Why is the misery of keeping a failing model?

 

[beijingwalker]

Have you not been listening to me after I talk about suburbanization all the time? Incomes getting higher after WW2 and people moving to single family housing in the suburbs instead of living in cramped cities?
US: rural->urban->suburban
China: rural->urban

The population of the US is around 329 million and now only about 20Million of that live in cities of over a million people. That's a minority. Can you do the math in your head?

I lived in New York and it needs longer and better subways, US used to have the world longest subways and railways in the past when US was sparsely populated, how come they don't need them now? China's high speed railway reached all the way to the Indian border in south Tibet small towns, do you know how many people live in those small Tibetan towns? Just couples of thousand.

 

[Genghis khan1]

Recently went to international arrivals of local airport and it’s sucks so bad that I think most 3rd world countries would beat major international airport here.

Airports in US are large but they make no sense. Arrival, departure, pickup, drop off, inter terminal connectivity everything is build and rebuild so many times in bit and pieces there is no beauty or scheme of things.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Or, if they are so obselete, US should close them down altogether. Why is the misery of keeping a failing model?

That has certainly come to the forefront in the news as some of these big cities are struggling to pay for infrastructure that was designed for when they had more than twice the population. They don't have the budgets to support it. With the wealthier people moving to the suburbs the cities are left with a higher low income percentage of the population. This makes the budget situation worse as they now are stuck with a taxpayer base that is insufficient. Some are even making theft a misdemeanor so they don't have to solve crimes with big police forces and then claim the serious crime rate has gone down.

 

[beijingwalker]

That has certainly come to the forefront in the news as some of these big cities are struggling to pay for infrastructure that was designed for when they had more than twice the population. They don't have the budgets to support it. With the wealthier people moving to the suburbs the cities are left with a higher low income percentage of the population making the budget situation worse. Some are even making theft a misdemeanor so they don't have to solve crimes with big police forces.

So based on your claim, all US cities don't need new infrastructure or upgrading of the old?

 

[beijingwalker]

It's extremely funny that this American guy thinks it's ok for US to spend trillions on defense while no countries are actually posing military threat to US, while it's not ok for US to spend on city infrastructure and upgrading cause not many people live in US cities anyway.

But does US suburbs need those infras? the answer is still no. The end conclusion is nowhere in US needs those infrastructures.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

So based on your claim, all US cities don't need new infrastructure or upgrading of the old?

WTF? Please read post #10 again.

It's extremely funny that this American guy thinks it's ok for US to spend trillions on defense while no countries are actually posing military threat to US, while it's not ok for US to spend on city infrastructure and upgrading cause not many people live in US cities anyway.

How about how funny it is for the Chinese guy to be saying the US needs MORE subways?

Can we spend the majority of the money on where the other 309 million people live instead of always throwing it all at where only 20 million people live. If a city doesn't have the revenue/ridership to keep their subways open why should the Federal Government throw billions at that subway to make it look nice. Instead of expanding (like the OP video says) maybe the city should be shutting parts down that are unprofitable to help pay for the upkeep of the rest.

MBTA on pace to rack up $53M deficit in fiscal 2020

The MBTA’s yearly deficit is already on the rise as the beleaguered transit agency misses its marks on some revenue targets. The T is on track to end up $53 million in the hole in fiscal 2020…

www.bostonherald.com

 

[beijingwalker]

a city doesn't have the revenue/ridership to keep their subways open why should the Federal Government throw billions at that subway to make it look nice. Instead of expanding (like the OP video says) maybe the city should be shutting parts down that are unprofitable to help pay for the upkeep of the rest.

Shutting down parts of cities for profit? are you serious? For every American city? but don't you think diverting a little bit of US ridiculous high military budget to improving some public infrastructure upgrading could be a better idea?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

US ridiculous high military budget to improving some public infrastructure upgrading could be a better idea?

You have had a huge percent of your population in extreme poverty for hundreds of years yet are you saying you just started your military in the last few?

What is China's excuse for having a military back in 1980 when almost your entire population was in extreme poverty? What is your justification?

Stop pointing at us instead of first pointing at yourselves.