1. China's got us beat on total tonnage and on tonne-km; Canada, Latvia, Russia, Estonia, and Switzerland have all got us beat on mode share. 2. I think it might have more to do with the general absence of railways for people to ride even if they wanted tohttps://twitter.com/TheBigYogurt/status/1002596804821733377 …
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Certainly it's true that our cities aren't walkable *in general,* but plenty of them (especially here in Massachusetts) have walkable parts--Northampton, where I live, has a charming town center full of shops, eateries, and bars, all fitting in less space than a large mall.
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My office in Springfield, in turn, is in parking lot hell, but despite the surroundings it's very close (<5min walk) to the Springfield train station. Is it lack of walkability that stops me from taking the train to work? No, it's bc the ONLY train service is once-a-day Amtrak!
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If every city in the USA magically became a walker's paradise overnight, WE'D STILL BE STUCK DRIVING, on the whole, because there's no rail network to use EVEN IF PEOPLE WANT TO! This is just one more problem that
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Presence of trucks doesn't mean rail is under-utilized; different kinds of freight make sense on different modes. Rail is ideal for heavy cheap freight where there's no water route available, eg moving coal, ore, lumber, etc across the American continent.
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This is why so much freight goes by train in Switzerland (landlocked) but so little in Japan (virtually every city has a port)
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Freight rail use in Massachusetts is as low as it is in Japan, for some of the same reasons: the big stuff can come by sea, the expensive and time-sensitive stuff (ie, a lot of the freight here) does better on trucks
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