alt Hacker News> For the latter, a big argument of "No need to invest in commuter trains" argument was "self driving cars are 'just around the corner' and they will make mass transit a quaint thing of the past" was used to deny investment in trains.
People don’t want to invest in trains because Americans don’t like trains. We have only one real city, and that city’s population consistently has net domestic outmigration. The city’s population is kept stable by a steady supply of international migrants: https://www.cityandstateny.com/media/ckeditor-uploads/2025/0....
Most Americans don’t want to commute sitting next to strangers. It’s not complicated.
Replies
awesome_dude • today at 3:27 AM
I'm one of the few dozen people on the internet not in America...
> Americans don’t like trains
They use them heavily when they're available. The NYC subway is very popular and successful, and many see it as a selling point of the city.
> Most Americans don’t want to commute sitting next to strangers.
I never hear city residents talk about 'strangers'. Interacting with others is a pleasure of cities, in fact - it's energizing, it builds social trust. We're social animals. I've never gotten on public transit, or walked down a busy sidewalk, and thought about 'strangers'. Most of those people are pretty sociable.