XeroxCool

I just grip the put with a lipless bite looking like squidward trying a krabby patty. The pit isn't that hard, it's just mounted in a mush

I had the opportunity to swing by Pikes after business in Pueblo and a flight from Denver. What an awesome place. My rental jeep hybrid did me no favors in the "cool racing sounds" department so I had to imagine them all. I didn't set any records though, because I stopped every mile for another picture. It was a special feeling when the trees dropped away and it becomes strictly sand and rocks up top. Regen braking was a neat trick for the downhill though, adding something like 14 miles of EV range. It was more entertaining to believe the thunder cloud I was descending through was actually charging it in some BTTF/steampunk/darwinian method though.

I have to go back and saunter through RMNP though. Everyone says the park is much better all around, but I certainly don't regret Pikes as a one-and-done visit without detours or decisions. Who knows, maybe I'll just stay next time. CO has impacted me more than CA

I'm aware of the illusion, but very few topics feel as meta as this one

I feel like I've mostly seen small clip-on mics in the US, though probably still plugged into phones. Wired more often than wireless. Even taped to podiums. Definitely not as many of the big mics with channel billboards.

My understanding is that it solidified some rules and introduced rules and assumptions about interactions and capabilities.

Minimal fuel and maintenance fees. Flashy iPad in the dash. Quiet ride. Pretty good acceleration. I say fuck Tesla at this point because Elon just couldn't stay quiet and just couldn't stay reasonable with the product, but Tesla is the brand that put EVs Into the common household.

Because risk is statistically low and fuel cost savings are more tangible than believing you're going to crash, let alone die. Humans are not logical. We know most conservatives don't believe in EVs and outright liberals don't want to support Musk, so who keeps buying them? Despite the reports of slumping sales, my area is continually renewing them despite being deeply blue. There's another category: the real silent majority. The apathetic majority that's being selfish and diminishing the weight of their actions.

BRB gonna throw that initial description somewhere on a LinkedIn post for a remote job

Smaller EV pickups would probably work well as the Range used to and the Maverick is currently. Economic haulers of miscellaneous bullshit. All my local NAPAs have phased out Colorados for Mavericks. Many pest control trucks are also Mavericks here now, too. These compact rummage haulers have historically been more of a local vehicle rather than a long distance traveler. I assume the problem is that the monetary cost of EV tech and the space required for batteries is better blended into larger vehicles. F150s were already hovering around 60kUSD average with a range of like 45-110. So, for now, as evidenced by the general lack of even gas compact pickups, ev pickups are large.

As a compromise of cost, limited bullshit hauling needs, and range for a "do it all" commuter, the Maverick hybrid may very well be in my near future. I don't actually have much range anxiety because I know the most my commuter must do is 45 miles/day, but I'm trying to not rely on my spouse's car for every potential trip. The Maverick seems like it has just enough utility without penalizing me for it. What I need most at this point is ease of transport of 4ft wide and/or 8ft long wood, which is not really feasible in a typical hatch or suv. Maverick owners boast about that capability, even coming from Rangers and such

You add a good point that explains a difference I didn't exactly consider. I talked about how pedestrian-hostile US cities are but never really considered why European cities are friendlier. Duh, the cities largely existed before the cars did. Horses and carriages aren't far off in size, but their speed is a fraction of the automobile. Funny, because I'm well aware that European cars are tiny because they have to take roads originally sized to beasts' asses while Americans can make u-turns on the average suburban stroad

So you like stereotyping?

I love rail. I work with rail. I don't believe the USA is a candidate for the passenger rail system we're picturing. Metro rail already exists in population centers with respectable, local capability. NYC, Boston, DC, Chicago, SF/Oakland, Philadelphia, LA, and Atlanta have some pretty healthy stats from their systems. So why can't they be connected? Because the USA is huge, relatively speaking, and quite empty. Look at a population density map and you'll see a small drop off moving west as you cross the Mississippi River and a huge drop off after the Missouri. It doesn't come back in meaningful numbers until the pacific coast. It's a sizable issue to make sensible routes that effectively cater to very, very spread out city hubs. Lemmy skews towards coastal residency, I bet, from a combo of sociopolitical demographic and, more importantly, the fact that most of the US population lives near the coast. If you've ever tried driving across the country, it sucks. There's neat mountain chains that diversify the topography and ecology, but it's vastly, widely flat and barren.

"But Japan does it" look at the rail map. It's much easier to have a central route with many spurs due to the shape.

"OK so Europe then". Not really. The dreamy European rail network is very heavily biased towards the western half - not unlike how the US network biases the Eastern 1/3.

"But there's so many accounts of great rail travel, both in US antiquity and modern Europe". Confirmation bias. How often do you hear someone complain they took an inter national trip and couldn't find a train? Compare to how often a person reports their great train trip. The trips are great because in a train-based trip, you go where the trains go. This does not speak for the trainless European citizens. This does not speak for the pre-interstate US citizens that had no other choice than to travel by train.

I'm not saying the US rail system is great without need for improvement. It could absolutely be better. Other modes of public transportation are also pretty derelict here. But a system that can't handle the "last mile" is not going to be effective. Adding onto the issue of bad transportation options outside the Amtrak station in the middle of a city, local infrastructure is typically hostile to non-car travelers. Highways intersecting cultural centers, sidewalks being rare, and spaced-out businesses make walking incredibly unfeasible in a majority of US cities. We can sit and blame the auto industry for lobbying various things in favor of the car, but we can't immediately undo that. We also can't change the fact that the big cities are still so far apart.

Look up whatever attractions you want to see and see how many hours of driving they are apart. Even on the dense side, NYC is 4 hours' drive from DC or Boston. An improved Northeast Corridor (which is home to the upcoming Acela 2/Avelia pictured above) still would only cover 450 miles of a narrow population cluster. The current Acela covers that in 7 hours at best from a mixture of older track, tighter curves, and, of course, stopping to let people go other places. Driving is about 8 hours. From there, though, there's still the other 3000 miles between NY and LA. So what is really expected of a cross-country rail network? It's really not surprising that air travel beats it with speed (and the same inconveniences at the destination) and that driving beats it with flexibility (with about the same time requirement but less infrastructure cost).

Aside from that, Amtrak is continuously struggling against freight lines. Amtrak's cross country capability largely comes from borrowing freight track rather than having dedicated lines. So while freight keeps playing games to steal extra track time, remember that freight is fighting a shitty battle against trucks. Trucks do a better job of fast delivery simply because they drive to the destination. Much less logistics surrounding transfers. Amazon taught us we can have it tomorrow and now it's expected across all levels of trade. So sure, it's easy to say build a new track, but that's a huge, huge cost to fix some train cancelations.

Anyway, I was able to witness the Avelia do speed testing. It's fuckin cool. Alstom/Bombardier of French TGV fame is behind Acela and Avelia, along with so much more of the US passenger market.