Privately owned fragmented rail systems will do that.
The math on this is all wrong, assuming the prices are even true to begin with.
If you take the train, only one person goes! The other person stays home and pays $0.
If they fly to a neutral site, both pay! You have to double the flight cost.
Train fare can typically be even more. Flights are comically cheaper, just the destination will obviously not be the same.
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There’s loads of articles about how broken the train system is in the UK.
Basically the airlines are getting so heavily subsidized they can offer dirt cheap faires. There’s more to it of course.
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When I was living in the UK, it wasn’t uncommon to see things like flights to anywhere in Europe for 20 quid, which was virtually nothing. Unless I rode my motorbike down, it was cheaper to go anywhere else in europe than it was to go to London, and worse, even if I paid the extra cost, I’d be in London.
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The duck curve. A good problem to have?
Universal really.
I understand why this is happening, and I don’t oppose it entirely. I just wonder what the full cost/benefit is. Because while reduction in cars is the big goal, it sure would be kinda nice to be able to buy one of those small efficient Chinese EVs.
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The problem is…they’re not. There’s good reasons they’re so cheap - they’re usually slow, lacking in power, have fuck-all range, are built even worse than a tesla(somehow) and more often than not, a genuine safety hazard(also even more than a tesla). They’re fucking deathtraps - and consider, it’s me saying that, I’ve run in some sketchy fucking vehicles in my time.
Honestly? You’d be better off spending the same amount of money on a golf cart.
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I honestly do think golf carts are a great idea. In a small town where people are most often moving themselves and some groceries, just having golf carts spread all around and free for anyone to use is kind of ideal.
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I entirely agree. And there’s even a lot of smaller communities around the place where golf carts or similar vehicles commonly fill that “Too far to easily walk(especially carrying things), but too short to reasonably drive” niche. I remember when I lived up north of here, it was not uncommon to see folks zipping down the street(or just on the not-sidewalk area by the sidewalk itself) in clapped out old golf carts or little farm buggies to pick up groceries, or pick up the kids, or little things like that.
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