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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFive Countries With the Best Public Transportation Systems
http://www.attn.com/stories/1855/public-transportation-systems-better-than-americaIn terms of countries with the best quality of infrastructure, the United States has consistently been ranked somewhere between roughly 15th and 25th for many years. The most recent World Economic Forum ranking puts the United States at number 16.
You can tell by our commutes. When you compare the United States and Europe, the United States has the third worst average commute time at just under 50 minutes. We're barely beating Romania and Hungary....
Infrastructure isn't just about long roads. Infrastructure also includes bridges, railroads, manmade waterways, and more. One has to look no further than the catastrophe we saw during Hurricane Katrina, when the levees keeping the water back broke, to see that there are systemic problems. New York during Hurricane Sandy was another tragedy. And in 2007, an eight-lane, steel bridge near Minneapolis collapsed with dozens of cars on it and killed 13 people. Infrastructure failures can be very dangerous.
Whether it's because of financial interests or just partisan politics, recent efforts to begin rebuilding our infrastructure have failed. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for president, recently introduced the Rebuild America Act, but it has received little support. The bill proposes spending $1 trillion on infrastructure over five years, which would create a lot of jobs. "A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could support 13 million decent-paying jobs and make our country more efficient, productive, and safer," Sanders said during a speech in February. He points out that the Iraq War is said to have cost over $3 trillion. For a Congress that is constantly ranting about job creation, it's a little suspect that it's not hastily picking up this bill.
You can tell by our commutes. When you compare the United States and Europe, the United States has the third worst average commute time at just under 50 minutes. We're barely beating Romania and Hungary....
Infrastructure isn't just about long roads. Infrastructure also includes bridges, railroads, manmade waterways, and more. One has to look no further than the catastrophe we saw during Hurricane Katrina, when the levees keeping the water back broke, to see that there are systemic problems. New York during Hurricane Sandy was another tragedy. And in 2007, an eight-lane, steel bridge near Minneapolis collapsed with dozens of cars on it and killed 13 people. Infrastructure failures can be very dangerous.
Whether it's because of financial interests or just partisan politics, recent efforts to begin rebuilding our infrastructure have failed. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a candidate for president, recently introduced the Rebuild America Act, but it has received little support. The bill proposes spending $1 trillion on infrastructure over five years, which would create a lot of jobs. "A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could support 13 million decent-paying jobs and make our country more efficient, productive, and safer," Sanders said during a speech in February. He points out that the Iraq War is said to have cost over $3 trillion. For a Congress that is constantly ranting about job creation, it's a little suspect that it's not hastily picking up this bill.
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Five Countries With the Best Public Transportation Systems (Original Post)
KamaAina
Jun 2015
OP
This is a wonderful illustration of why you should be wary of non-professional opinion polls.
Donald Ian Rankin
Jun 2015
#2
The top ten also share Population Densities that are far higher than North America
One_Life_To_Give
Jun 2015
#3
brooklynite
(94,585 posts)1. But we have FREEDOM!
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)2. This is a wonderful illustration of why you should be wary of non-professional opinion polls.
Underneath this article, they've asked the poll question "do you support spending more on rail travel?"
I wonder if the people who cite that poll will mention that it was attached to an article explaining why the answer should be "yes", or if they'll just baldly claim "x% support spending more on rail travel"...
One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)3. The top ten also share Population Densities that are far higher than North America
The top ten also share Population Densities that are far higher than North America. Yes I have long argued for more and better infrastructure in the USA. But we should also recognize that Public Transportation doesn't work well in Wyoming. The top countries listed are City States. If we condensed all of North America into New York City why we could do really well too on some of the metrics.