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I've been living in Asia for years, and its embarrassing when students ask me that if they go to Los Angeles, how can they get from A to B, and I have to explain that Americans are car-dependent, and have very few alternative options, to get to most places.
Uber does not change anything. It is still a taxi or car rental, and costs the same. At least as I understand it. I lived in a US city until last summer, and I never saw a Uber car, to my knowledge, and I do not personally know anyone who has ever used Uber.
There is far more to infrastructure than passenger rail. I have never been to the US, but it's hard to imagine it been so wealthy without it.
For instance in Australia these days most of the big 200-300t mining trucks in North West WA are driven from offices in Perth almost 1000 miles away. The ore is loaded onto some of the worlds biggest freight trains, and then loaded automatically into ships, at a port which by bulk tonnage handling carries about the same amount as Rotterdam.
That sort of stuff might not be "cool" or " politically correct" but it's still infrastructure.
In the back streets of Seoul where my in laws live the garbage is still collected by people pulling rickshaws, and the foot paths when they exist are absolutly shocking.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 04-03-2018 at 04:38 PM..
The big difference is that most developed countries have either emerged recently, or had to rebuild after destructive wars. So other countries have a planned infrastructure for modern times, while the USA is still duct-taping the old one together and bending it to make it fit.
Uber does not change anything. It is still a taxi or car rental, and costs the same. At least as I understand it. I lived in a US city until last summer, and I never saw a Uber car, to my knowledge, and I do not personally know anyone who has ever used Uber.
Services like Uber and Lyft change plenty. In Chicago, for example, a Lyft Line or Uber Pool are only marginally more expensive than riding the L trains or the buses here. Both services regular cars are also cheaper than cabs the majority of the time, and their popularity is probably part of the reason why bus ridership is falling here.
Uber has a presence in every major city besides Austin at this point, in addition to plenty of mid-sized ones. Where were you living that you never saw one?
I hear the US lags behind a lot of developed countries in infrastructure For those of you who have been to other countries, how was the infrastructure there?
I've lived and worked all over the planet in the last 15 years and I wish we had:
1) more good subway systems like London, Seoul, Shanghai
2) more train routes and high speed trains like China & Spain
3) better airports like Dubai & Doha
4) an airline as good as Emirates
5) faster and cheaper internet
6) of course cheaper health care
"Infrastructure" does cover a lot of areas. Critical space based infrastructures such as navigation satellite system, communication satellite system would place US way ahead of all others. For things like that, you'd have to compare to large countries like China or Russia. GPS is a constellation of 30+ satellites. Most countries can not afford any single satellite and can only pay for services, and can not launch anything. China has a navigation system but does not cover the whole globe; Russia has a global navigation system but precision is low; EU countries combined has a small network. Communication satellites for internet, communication are expensive.
Those infrastructures are also vulnerable to war time sabotage that would cripple everything on land and in air.
Uber does not change anything. It is still a taxi or car rental, and costs the same. At least as I understand it. I lived in a US city until last summer, and I never saw a Uber car, to my knowledge, and I do not personally know anyone who has ever used Uber.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PerseusVeil
Services like Uber and Lyft change plenty. In Chicago, for example, a Lyft Line or Uber Pool are only marginally more expensive than riding the L trains or the buses here. Both services regular cars are also cheaper than cabs the majority of the time, and their popularity is probably part of the reason why bus ridership is falling here.
Uber has a presence in every major city besides Austin at this point, in addition to plenty of mid-sized ones. Where were you living that you never saw one?
I don't live in the city, I live in the 'burbs, but I see Uber (and Lyft) vehicles all the time. I know multiple people who drive for them. It's a big deal, and not that expensive. Of course, it's expensive if you are going really long distances, but for getting around town, Uber is ideal.
Cebuan, you are doing your students a disservice by not mentioning it.
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