Man, I have lived in Europe for the past 11 years and have yet to meet anyone who has used them or commented on them. I know someone who went on vacation to the US and took an overnight Amtrak for fun.
I’m sure they exist but really, people fly on longer voyages. Bullet trains may be changing that. A Madrid->Paris line will open soon that’ll do it in 5 hours. Which gets close to the speed of a plane when airport security and the like is taken into account and should give much more comfort.
I’ve used them multiple times, when I was traveling with my class or alone. I wouldn’t say I love them, but they are OK. In the last 10-15 years flights have become appallingly cheap, so that’s usually easier.
Sleeper trains have lost their popularity when airlines got deregulated and companies like Ryanair took off with super cheap flights. This might be changing soon as EU has deregulated railways a few years ago and there’s a fierce competition to make trains cheaper than flights again.
I live in germany. Every single time I take a longer trip, I look for overnight train options. I have never in my life used a sleeper train because they either don’t exist on that route or are so much more expensive I’d rather do the less comfortable option. I would love to love sleeper trains.
Same here, every time I was driving train at night in germany. I rarely was in a sleeper train and if I was. Only in the normal seating compartments. They are just way to expensive. I sometimes look for fun what a flight would cost. And mostly its more than the half…
And don’t get me started with train driving to other European countries
first few minutes, talking about all the amenities that I do not have, because I live in the U.S. Then they go on about how some cities in the U.S are getting better. but oh wait, those are also the most expensive cities to live in. Also, the average life expectancy for adult males in the U.S. is 73. so if you’re in your mid 30’s, congrats, you’re middle aged. Pointing that out just to say that I don’t want to live in a walkable, bikeable, mass transit-able city in 20 years (if republicans don’t tear everything down first), I want to live there now, during my lifetime.
Its not very common. Its just in very specific jurisdictions with very specific fleet count allowed.
Within the past 8 or so years, self driving has rapidly improved (not any of the shit tesla calls self driving).
A lot of the testing happens in california, only because thats where a lot of the startups are as well as existing big corporate are located as they go their due to the existing talent pool required to start it up.
The lead-up to the commission's vote prompted the Safe Street Rebel group to start "coning," as they call it. Members have long used street theater shenanigans to gain attention in their fight against cars and to promote public transportation.
So they want to decrease cars and increase public transport. Makes sense.
Coning driverless cars fits in line with a long history of protests against the impact of the tech industry on San Francisco. Throughout the years, activists have blockaded Google's private commuter buses from picking up employees in the city. And when scooter companies flooded the sidewalks with electric scooters, people threw them into San Francisco Bay.
Uh, one of their other protests is to block mass transport (not technically public, but better than cars) and destroy items that promote not using cars? I mean I hate that those fucking scooters are littered everywhere, but a simple ordinance that only allows them in certain locations (stations) could fix that.
"Then there was the burning of Lime scooters in front of a Google bus," says Manissa Maharawal, an assistant professor at American University who has studied these protests.
Burning battery-powered devices in front of a bus. I've lost all empathy with this group.
And that doesn't even address how driverless cars will eventually be far, far safer than drivers, and will cut down on total cars. I understand not wanting your streets to be testing grounds, but that has to happen eventually. Test courses can only do so much to simulate reality. All things eventually are tested on volunteers or the public, like medicine. Perhaps they should be pushing for a referendum as to where to test driverless cars? Because being opposed to all cars is unrealistic. With how America is designed, a small fleet of driverless cars to get places public transportation can't cover is an ideal future. Redesigning entire cities isn't a near-term solution.
My main thing now why I go for cars/planes over train right now, is train is just expensive. For where I’m at most places I’ve checked itd sadly cost more to take the Amtrak then it is for a plane ticket. If trains were cheaper then I wouldn’t mind at all.
I’ve done overnight Amtrak trips in a “Roomette”. My way of looking at it is the journey is part of the vacation whereas flying is the means to get you where you’re going. A cross country train trip can take a few days requiring multiple overnights. If you factor in what a hotel would cost plusmeals (Amtrak includes two meals a day) then that offsets the cost. Besides that you can carry on drinks and snacks plus you don’t have to pay a fee for luggage. I’ve met a lot of nice people on the train, it’s definitely a more civilized way to travel compared to the airline cattle cars. Though it won’t appeal to everyone It’s more for older people with a lot of spare time that always dreamed of driving across the US.
Amtrak is on my bucket list. I’m in Europe so I’m more familiar with international trains here.
I quite love the relaxed mode of travel, though I’m yet to experience a night train though. I might hop on one of those new lines that are opening up across Europe. The ultimate dream of course is a system like China but with fewer human rights violations.
After riding Amtrak you may feel like your human rights have been violated LOL. I joke of course, just know some routes are notorious for being late. Unlike Europe our train terminals aren’t always located in the center of town and if you miss a connecting train the next one may not be until the next day. Most people in the US don’t get much vacation time so this is another reason they avoid Amtrak.
Yeah I just came back from a US trip a few weeks ago and considered NY to Washington, but ended up with a rental car for convenience. The DC metro system seems decent though.
In Europe ( i mean Paris, France and Italy ) public authority had pushed hard on micromobility, but now they are, in reality banning it cause safety problems.
Not really, they are just regulating it. And a lot of those countries already had really well-developed metro systems, and micromobility and rental transport options have still taken off. Driverless cars haven’t because of the GDPR barrier that even brings up the legality of dashcam video usage in some of its countries, so basically only those with the hefty Euro parliament lobbyists like Tesla are allowed to some degree.
the main reason driverless cars haven’t taken off in Europe is that European road safety regulators require strong evidence that a technology is safe before it is used on roads, as opposed to the US, where new technology is largely allowed on roads by default until it kills enough people.
Things that aren’t a hazard, like automated delivery robots that go too slow to injure anyone, haven’t been allowed because of GDPR concerns, except within private property as waiter bots. In contrast, electric mobility solutions have spread all throughout the streets of Europe regardless of whether people leave them tossed in the street. But you make a good point, “safety regulators” requires another good set of lobbyists to push through.
Regulating in a manner to ban them. Driverless cars are not technologically ready right now. GDPR, is the bare minimum privacy protection, as a lot o citizens required.
Because companies don’t ever lie about not preserving and selling their data they have recorded in public, specially that being used for research purposes meaning it is beneficial to keep it a long time even without an interest in spying? It’s going to require a lot of lobbyists to get the “official seals of approval” that prove automated vehicles aren’t spying, and that’s all that matters in that regard. Well, that, and not being embarrassed by immediate leaks of it.
What I’m saying is even if that car was part of a network of attachable cars, the maintenance of the infrastructure needed to accomodate those cars is still way more expensive. This is not even getting into the discussion that if you have enough cars to need a highway (let alone enough to start attaching self-driving cars to each other), a train is more feasible. Period.
I will agree with you that the train is not the be all and end all. Good bike infrastructure (separated bike lanes that are connected through a planned network), light rail/trams and buses all have their place. What I disagree is the use of cars in urban and suburban centers/ corridors. There is no need. The only people that should use private vehicles are delivery vehicles, emergency vehicles, and those that live in impossibly remote areas that are very much disconnected from urban centers - areas that are hardly surrounded by a self-sustaining community.
I rented a car with adaptive cruise controle a month ago and it felt like riding a train. Driverles cars could work if they aren’t personal possession.
They won’t work because they take up space and therefore genrate traffic. They are also wasteful to resources, electric or not, because trains do a more efficient job of transporting people en mass than motorways/ highways (decreased cost of traintrack maintenance, decreased use of fuel per capita).
I ride a train 5 days a week. Not every destination can be reached by train. We need a multimodal approach to transport.
In the morning I ride to the railroad station with my own bike. There I take the train to the nearest hub and depending on my final destination I take a train or a bus. When I take the train I always take a shared bike for the last part of my journey.
Sometimes I really need to take a car because there is no suitable connection or the total commute takes up to much time by public transport. Then it would be great to eb able to call a self driving car to get me to my destination. A car that uses the highway and maind roads as if it was a railroad. Just attach your car to the line of cars passing. They could all go at the same speed and crossings could be arranged at turn by turn system so nobody really has to wait.
You realize car-dependent cities require you to be licensed and registered to be able to access groceries, no? In a walkable neighborhood, you can walk. For free. No license. No big government. No registration. Car dependence is the surveillance state.
Then be against surveillance in general… Its also a big problem. Not only a problem of 15 Minute cities. Cameras can also track your car quite easliy. Through the whole city.
All I need is less than 10 minutes away and I rarely need to go further for anything. And I love it. Not car dependend and no surveillance here.
If Europeans (in general) love sleeper trains, why are there so little of those? Even in Russia, sleeper trains are still the main and preferred way of transportation between most regional centers (for the majority of travelers I would say it is “default” one), while in the EU most destinations are not even covered by a sleeper. I hope new companies like “European Sleeper” blossom because I personally prefer sleepers very much, but to say “Europeans love those” is untrue, since it is still mostly something exotic.
It’s more of a comeback moment and it takes time to reno all the old trains. I love the Nightjet but let’s be honest, the cars themselves are very funky.
I live 15 minutes walking from a European Sleeper stop and can’t wait to use it.
There were many more of these lines like 20 years ago. But these idiots abandoned these lines because for whatever reason. I’ll never understand why plane is developed and supported like it is and train is completely abandoned. Our politicians are useless shits is my best hypothesis at this point.
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