I think you're not really understanding the scope of the problem.
We have a train network. Amtrak is barely used, costs more than flying, and you still have to rent a car at the end of your multi-day trip on the train. The US is HUGE.
I lived in a mass transit society (Japan) for years. It's fundamentally different, in ways that aren't changeable.
I understand the scope of the problem. Saying nothing can change is also wrong.
We literally built a nationwide interstate highway system in this country which included bulldozing downtowns and spending the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars to do it. That wasn't that long ago, we're the same country in most ways.
It's a political problem at all levels. Not a technology or physics problem.
Looking at the full scope of the country and saying because the overall problem is large we can't take any steps to improve it is defeatist.
I’m not sure you understand what I want then. I never said I want the US to have the same level of public transit ridership as the Japan, or replace all car journeys with trains.
I was specifically responding to a quote that trips of 50-300 miles are too long for public transit. That is demonstrably untrue around the world.
And using that as a justification to try to solve the problem using personal airplanes instead of real working solutions that scale to high capacity at low emissions seems silly to me.
We have a train network. Amtrak is barely used, costs more than flying, and you still have to rent a car at the end of your multi-day trip on the train. The US is HUGE.
I lived in a mass transit society (Japan) for years. It's fundamentally different, in ways that aren't changeable.