Traffic relief through high-speed rail.
Undergoing travel in necessary, and, for many trips, the massive amount of time it takes is not. Along with taxes and change, the need for shorter travel times will exist forever. Lately, efforts have been made in America to replicate Europe and Asia’s solution to this: high speed, bullet, and maglev trains. One of these efforts include Obama’s attempt to spur it’s development with $11 billion. This money was intended to be put to use in the Northeast Corridor – a huge electric rail line spanning from New York City to Washington D.C. – in order to implement high speed cars. This would have alleviated traffic on the parallel I-99 and through the cities’ airports. Unfortunately, Amtrack’s trains got little benefit from the money, as its fastest train, the Acela, hits 150mph for a mere 10 minutes, and averages only 80mph from New York City to Washington D.C. In order for the rail to reach its full potential of 220mph, an estimated $150 billion more will be needed, along with 26 years’ time. However, upon its completion, travel time would be reduced from the current two hours and forty-five minutes to just ninety minutes.
This clearly pertains to subject matter in this class as it discusses traffic being mitigated from other forms of travel by promising lower cost via faster travel times. The article states that usage of the rail system shot up from its latest upgrade to the two hour forty-five minute travel time. It can be predicted, then, that usage would increase even more if the time were brought down to ninety minutes. Intuitively, one can reason that more passengers on the rail means fewer on the highway and in the sky. This scenario strongly resembles problems discussed in class e.g. getting from point A to point B by travelling through route I or route II.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/us/delays-persist-for-us-high-speed-rail.html?_r=0