It infuriates me to my bones how Americans specifically think about driving vs. other modes of transportation.

$34B to repair a quarter-mile long stretch of highway? What the hey, it's not our money (Narrator: it was, at least partially).
$10M to add bike lanes to a busy road with one of the highest crash fatality statistics in my city that's basically a highway? REEEE NOT IN MY BACKYARD!

Because those aren’t the actual arguments they respond to, just the face of the arguments. The real argument is that the car is an extension of the self. They should be able to drive anywhere, park anywhere, drive anything, without fear (Traffic deaths are unavoidable and unremarkable), judgment (I drive a Tesla, I’m saving the earth!), or undue cost (gas and maintenance. Sometimes tolls.) except for that which they’ve already internalized.

Public transport is by definition collective. The train is not an extension of you. It is a thing we all collectively benefit from. It isn’t tailored to your specific tastes. It doesn’t go 0-60 faster than Joe Nextdoor’s train. Everyone pays the same, you can’t show off how fancy your ticket is.

Some kid killed on the tracks is the fault of the train, because the driver could have been any of us. We are relatable people. The train is an unrelatable, unaccountable “us” that Americans will never, ever choose over their ideal “me.”

My brother at 13 was killed by a train

What my mother did was start a campaign to get people to practice common sense and safety around trains. Our family doesn't blame the train at all - We instead got better crossing safety put in place and helped get more awareness that train tracks are stabilized in cities to minimize noise and that horns are directed outwards, so a train is quieter head on than you think, ie look both ways before you cross

Like, if my own family can get that, then why can't these anti train fucks?

It isn't about logic, it is about preventing the station which prevents the denser developments that come with it and prevents people from living in those developments. These protesters mostly want to preserve (read increase) their property values while preserving the "character of the neighbourhood" (read if you don't already live here, you don't belong).

blaming pedestrians in crosswalks for getting hit by cars seems pretty bloodthirsty (and fuckcars is a weird community to say it)

If a pedestrian is on a cross walk, the bigger mass should be required to stop to let the pedestrian cross safely.

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure an intersection is clear before crossing it. A crosswalk is an intersection and a pedestrian is foot traffic.

It wouldn't. Nor would it be unsafe. These property value fuckers are not just obnoxious but also really stupid.

There's a neighborhood in my city right next to a light rail station. Literally, some of the houses are less than 20m from the platform. But when the station was being built the neighborhood association specifically campaigned against having any access to the station from the neighborhood. There's a huge concrete wall blocking it off now. So if the people living in the houses literally directly next to the station wanted to get to the station they'd have to walk (or realistically, drive) over 2km across a highway, along a major road and through busy parking lots. And then, after getting to the station, they'd have to cross back under the highway to get to the actual train platform, because it's built on their side of the highway despite being impossible to get to from that side.

@henfredemars @buckykat Nope. Both homebuyers and apartment developers are willing to pay a premium for high quality transit access, especially rail. Unless the rail service is really inconvenient and unreliable, it would substantially raise their precious property values, should they want to sell and move further out in the exurbs because they’re afraid of people who aren’t encased in SUVs.