>>1092883>...their existing transit systems barely function given how many people actually use it...If it barely functions, there's no wonder why hardly anyone uses it.
This is the Transportation Infrastructure Planning Fallacy #1, and is the most common excuse used for not building proper infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists as well as public transportation. L.A. Is the perfect example of this, where all of this was actively and deliberately torn down to make way for cager infrastructure. Then everyone started driving, no one walks, bikes or takes the bus, and when someone suggests maybe make a bike path it is shot down because "no one rides a bike in L.A.". Never mind that every single city that decided, fuck it, we are doing this, and actually plowed ahead and made proper interconnected walking/biking infrastructure is always massively rewarded for doing it in every conceivable way. It's so fucking dumb.
If a better alternative to planes/cars/trains comes along, it will be used, even though no one uses it now. They don't use it because there isn't any. Staying with Musk, think about the network of Tesla Supercharges; A massive infrastructure investment for a very small existing market. Completely economically unsustainable on paper, but because of the investment, the demand for Teslas is now insane.
I don't know if the Hyperloop can be done (both the naysayers and the optimists make convincing cases in my opinion), but if it can, demand will be the least of their problems.
