Isn't it a classical chicken and egg problem? Reliance on car => no public transport; No public transport => reliance on car. Someone should make an effort to change it.
I would love to hear why HSR is not "public transport."
Also, Central valley is not just an agricultural place: "On less than 1 percent of the total farmland in the United States, the Central Valley produces 8 percent of the nation's agricultural output by value: US$43.5 billion in 2013." From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)
I have taken a train through agricultural areas of Japan. It was really nice actually. Tokyo Subway to Shinkansen to a regional train to a single car train. All with painless in-station transfers.
Also the California HSR project includes modernization of connecting services. Do you consider Caltrain to be public transit?
I'm not sure what your definition of public transport is. Regarding Japan, if you mean "publicly owned" then Japan Rail is private. If you mean "available to the public" then I can walk into Tokyo station 10min before a bullet train leaves, buy a ticket, and be in Kyoto in 2 hours.
“Public transit” means transit operated by or on behalf of municipalities for getting around cities or metro regions. Inter-city rail is generally not considered “public transit.”
It does not mean “available to the public.” You can also buy a plane ticket at Haneda and be in Kansai in less than 90 minutes. Japan Rail isn’t any more “public transit” than ANA.
I’m not sure what is the point in arguing semantics, but I’ll take the bait. I think you have a different idea of what public transit is then most people I’ve talked to.
Most other uses of the qualifier “public” are not this limited. e.g. public infrastructure, public art, and public libraries only requires that it is available to the public without major hurdles or restrictions, not who operates it and for what purpose. In my books, transit is no different. If a transit is available to the public it is public transit.
In fact there are many airlines which I consider public transit. Including domestic air travel in Iceland and Greenland (and even between Iceland and Greenland) is public transit.
In which case, I would find myself uttering the phrase "Tokyo has no public transit" which I don't think is the case. Every train in Tokyo is inter-city rail, and I think that seems to work just fine.
