American visionaries

The cities continue to grow, and will continue to grow in the future. Census Bureau projections show growth of over 100 million over the next 35 years, and probably the lion’s share of that will go into cities – maybe mid-size cities more than megalopolises – but still sizable urban areas. Wealth will grow, and with it the urge to travel. But the skies are already crowded, the airports have already been built and are surrounded by development, and flying is already, frequently, an extraordinarily unpleasant experience. The highways are already built, and they are already crowded. So what’s the future of inter-urban transportation in this country? And tell me again why nobody’s even talking about building thin-ribbons of tracks that can move thousands of passengers from one city to another in an hour or two? Why is there not a train from Chicago that pulls into Saint Louis less than two hours later? Or Boston to New York in an hour and twenty minutes? The Europeans seem to get it. So do the Japanese, and even some so-called third world countries. Maybe we’re just smarter than they are.