Just to note, the 130 billion figure for HS2 isn’t just for the London to Birmingham leg.
Also there’s a lot of things that went into making it expensive: a lack of high speed expertise, extra tunnels to satisfy nimbys, the government insisting on low risk contracts and changing plans constantly, etc
With the looming announcement to scrap HS2 connecting Birmingham to Manchester. Thankfully my days of commuting by train are over. What I fail to understand is what advantages it really would have. Up’ed capacity they say. But with the WFH agenda fully embedded and here to stay, I really think it’s the best decision to make...
The biggest benefit is capacity, with the fast intercity trains running on a new line you have much more space to run more local and freight services on existing lines. Due to the current difference in speeds on the same lines, the capacity is limited even more because trains have to be spaced out more to stop them catching up with each other, so you get more than one extra trains capacity on the existing lines for each intercity train moved off.
With regards to WFH, it’s not as big of an impact as you might think, and even those working from home still travel. Rail usage is mostly back to how it was pre pandemic, but with some changes. There’s now more leisure traffic than there was before, and fewer commuters.
It’s really not a good idea to stop at this point. We’ve committed to the most expensive part which will be under-used without the rest. The tories have had more than a decade being in charge and they’ve done nothing to try to control the costs, while also trying to reduce risk which then increases costs. There’s also the myth that has become pervasive recently that government debt works like household debt, which isn’t true. Most government debt is owned by the Bank of England, which is controlled by the government. In harder economic times the government should be spending more to stimulate the economy, not continually imposing austerity.
The “reallocation” is bullshit. If they’re spending money in Manchester in the next few years it isn’t the same money that would’ve been used for HS2 because that wasn’t due to be delivered until later. And the majority of the projects are just things they’ve already promised to do before and have already been neglecting. The tory manifesto of 2015 promised electrification of the midland main line to Sheffield, and notably the new list of promises won’t bring the massive increase in capacity that HS2 would have, and that we need. On top of that a quarter of this money is going to fixing potholes…
There’s many reasons why HS2’s costs have risen, but notably it was the tories who’ve been in power the whole time and have had the opportunity to look into it, but have decided it isn’t worth the effort apparently.
None of the places outside North America mentioned in the video have completely banned cars. The video is mostly talking about reducing car dependence and increasing options for transport rather than banning them completely.
Also every situation you mentioned can be solved with a taxi or rental car. We can still do those things without having to drive everywhere for everything.
The 15 minute cities conspiracy theory came from covid deniers who, when it became clear that governments weren’t trying to instate perpetual lockdowns, needed a new thing to latch on to and came up with the idea of “climate lockdowns”.
The actual 15 minutes cities idea is literally just to have the things you need daily within a 15 minute walk of your home. It’s pretty sensible and not harmful to your mobility at all. But now the guy that came up with the idea gets death threats because of people spreading this bullshit.
The current status quo in most of the US and Canada is that in large areas nothing but large single family houses are allowed to be built, which forces people into spending thousands a year on their cars to get anywhere. The alternative being proposed is building areas that can have a mix of housing types and uses, so people can live without needing a car to get anywhere, not to stop being from having cars and going places.
I assume your mention of Shanghai is referring to their COVID lockdowns, which I also think were too severe, but as far as I am aware have completely ended. This was also in response to a virus, and has nothing to do with urban design.
There’s a lot you could criticise about the Chinese government, and yet you choose more conspiracy theories. The social credit score in the way that you speak of it comes from a misunderstanding of a vaguely worded Chinese policy document, which lead to various pilot projects by some companies, cities and ministries which have all been conflated into one thing. Here’s a good video which goes over the whole thing which I’m sure you won’t watch but will still have many opinions about.
The issue you describe in Canada is part of the problem that I describe. Here’s a zoning map of Vancouver for example:
In all of the yellow areas, only single family homes and duplexes can be built, which have very low densities. This means anytime there is space where something more dense can be built, the most dense thing possible is built. If there was less restrictive zoning which allowed more mixed uses across the area, what’s known as missing middle housing, that is all of the other housing types in between single family homes and large condo towers, could be built.
Insurance and licencing for cyclists is a really terrible idea. Everywhere that has tried mandatory insurance has given up on it because it just isn’t worth the cost. If you want to do licenses how to you administer the tests? What age do you have to be to take it? And therefore how many children are you banning from cycling? The issues disappear once you have decent infrastructure for cyclists, which is a much better solution for both sides.
They’re all encouraging more driving, which leads to more pollution and more pedestrian deaths. 20mph speed limits reduce collisions, reduce the severity when they do happen, decrease pollution, and barely has an effect on journey times.
Education is great, but adding more barriers to entry isn’t. It’s the cars that cause the danger and we should be doing as much as possible to get people out of them.
I’d probably vote green if they had any chance of winning, but their opposition to HS2 annoys me. They support building a new north south rail link, but not the one we’re already building.
The US freight rail industry isn’t some of the best in the world, it’s actually really quite terrible. It fails to maintain it’s infrastructure, can’t run to a schedule, frequently loses cargo, and causes ecological disasters. It is good at creating short term profits for shareholders, not being an effective transportation network. If you want more info, here’s a video that explains it better.
For those of you who use Raspberry Pi’s in your home environment, I’m curious as to what you use them for. What applications are you running on them? Do you have your Pi’s setup in a cluster?
ich🚆iel (lemmy.ml) German
Sunak’s ‘spiteful’ sale of land intended for HS2 dashes hopes of revival (www.theguardian.com)
deleted_by_moderator
HS2 - Birmingham to Manchester (www.bbc.co.uk)
With the looming announcement to scrap HS2 connecting Birmingham to Manchester. Thankfully my days of commuting by train are over. What I fail to understand is what advantages it really would have. Up’ed capacity they say. But with the WFH agenda fully embedded and here to stay, I really think it’s the best decision to make...
Cars Have Robbed Us of Identity. (www.youtube.com)
ich🇩🇪🇦🇹🇨🇭iel (feddit.de) German
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, everyone 🤦 (lemmy.ml)
We’re all in on the culture war now
By Railing Against 15-Minute Cities Rishi Sunak Aligns U.K. Government With Conspiracy Theory Believers (www.forbes.com)
These automatic trucks work better when we put them on rails (lemmy.world)
Sunak expected to limit powers of councils in England to curb car use (www.theguardian.com)
Introducing Raspberry Pi 5 (www.raspberrypi.com)
Do any of you use Raspberry Pi’s ?
For those of you who use Raspberry Pi’s in your home environment, I’m curious as to what you use them for. What applications are you running on them? Do you have your Pi’s setup in a cluster?
The Case for a Car-Free Manhattan (www.youtube.com)
There’s also a follow up: How a Car-Free Manhattan would work
The Case for a Car-Free Manhattan (www.youtube.com)
There’s also a follow up: How a Car-Free Manhattan would work
'Scandalous': Anger as BBC 'refuse to cover' anti-Brexit rally in London (www.thenational.scot)
THE BBC has been asked to explain why it has not reported on a large-scale anti-Brexit rally in the centre of London ...
EVs (feddit.de)
It's time to replace urban delivery vans (www.youtube.com)
It’s nice to see larger outlets talking about urbanism topics and Vox has made a few videos in this area recently.