Probably the car-dependent infrastructure of North America. You can’t get anywhere or do anything unless you can drive a vehicle.
My grandmother depends on her independent living facility’s bus shuttle to get anywhere. There is no public bus and no destinations reachable by walking or transit. Zero.
In these photos I see a country where infrastructure is so good that the elderly manage to run full blown businesses, and where elderly live healthy longer since they aren’t living their lives sitting on couches on wheels in the McDonald’s drive thru.
Here in rural New England, it’s snow, ice and slush for months of the year. Bicycles and even motorcycles are unworkable for most, especially the elderly.
The investment necessary to install and operate public transportation that operates on fixed routes and schedules is completely infeasible. There isn’t even a single taxi or Uber in town - they didn’t pay.
A century ago, this area was full of small farms, which were self-sufficient and people would make it an entire winter without leaving their property. Those days are gone. The same would have been true for rural Japan, though the latter had a higher density of small towns and small crafts, e.g. tofu makers within walking distance.
Mass transit works great in Tokyo, where these pictures were taken, and it works worldwide at similar population densities, better than cars.
Rural US has chosen the privately owned car as its transportation system. It works well. Perhaps it can be augmented with roboUbers, but remember the issues with electric scooters!
Other countries just don’t understand the reality of how much bigger the US is than them. Also it’s always a stab against America and not Canada or Australia, both of which share the same problems of size.
It also seems odd that it's no problem to plow and salt a gigantic interstate highway system in the USA but somehow it's impossible to clear some small bike lanes.
Before you say "only fit people can cycle," Netherlands has microcars that the elderly and disabled can use on bike lanes:
It's weird that you say that installing and operating mass transportation is "completely infeasible" when that's the status quo in Japan.
Rail in Japan: (Wikipedia)
Ridership: 7.589 billion (2014)
Passenger km: 260 billion (2014)
System length
Total: 30,625 km
Electrified: 21,600 km
Rail in USA: (Wikipedia)
Ridership: 549,631,632
29 million (Amtrak only) (2014)
Passenger km: 10.3 billion (2014)
How does a country with less than half the population of the USA take 15x the trips and ride 26x the kilometers when their population density is only 10x higher. And, really, if you just talk about major population centers on the coasts and Midwest, the USA doesn't look crazy different than Japan. The Northeast Megalopolis has 3x higher population density than Japan.
For example, this very rural line with a single rail car has a more frequent timetable than Amtrak's Chicago to Milwaukee train, which connects two large metro areas that are within feasible commuting distance:
Video of the line demonstrating how rural it is. Each train only has one car!
It's also weird that you say that this can only work in places with high population density, when we know that's not the case. The population of Denmark is similar to Indiana, with Indiana beating Denmark in population density, and the population of Sweden is similar to Ohio, with Ohio having 10x Sweden's population density.
Explain then why there's no passenger train from Chicagoland (same size as all of Sweden) to Columbus, Ohio (same size as Copenhagen), a distance of 350 miles (which includes passing through two other sizable cities), but I can get on a high speed train from Copenhagen to Stockholm and cross into a different country covering a driving distance of about 400 miles.
We also know density has nothing to do with it because the USA was built almost entirely on rail. There are hundreds if not thousands of railroad town in the USA.
> Rural US has chosen the privately owned car as its transportation system. It works well.
Does it work well? Car crashes are the #2 accidental killer behind guns (used to be #1). The USA's traffic death rate per 100,000 people is 6x higher than Sweden and 3x higher than Japan:
Our rail system sucks, it is true. I'm quite sure that, if we expanded it, it would still suck. Cars work well for people in rural areas, and they are cost-effective in rural areas.
Your "fact" on accidental gun "killings" v. fatal car accidents is far from reality. In 2021, there were 2,007 accidental gun fatalities.[0] In 2021, per your doc, the total US transportation deaths were 42,915, all presumably accidental.
The US passenger rail system is badly mismanaged and offers lousy service. If the network were to be expanded, I'd expect more of the same lousy service.
I like commuter rail and subways in Boston. I wish the parking was better at the railheads, that would encourage use. If I lived in Boston, I wouldn't need to own a car, I'd just rent one as needed for trips outside the area.
Once I drive as far as Boston suburbs, I might as well keep going in. It's faster to cover the final distance by car, and the parking fees aren't too bad, once I subtract the rail and subway fares I'd otherwise need to pay.
Also, I can load all my packages and bags into the back of my car. The subway is really inconvenient for that.
