>>1964731>make my point for me.Your point is what, exactly? Because CAHSR has been politically difficult, the geography of the DFW metro area has no influence whatsoever on zoning policy in the region? This is what I mean when I say you are incoherent. Every post you make is full of fallacies like straw man and non sequitur. Your concept of argument is merely to score rhetorical points in favor of urbanist memes about rail and zoning.
Yes. California has favorable geography for passenger rail (both local and intercity). Similar to Japan, California is long and narrow, with hostile terrain confining habitation. In fact CA is constrained by access to drinkable water as well as by mountains. Incidentally, this means water management is an important political issue in California. When deciding on public works projects, something like an aquaduct may take priority over transit.
So why does Japan have HSR and California doesn't? Looking beyond the shallow, useless, non-answer of "political will:"
Japan, 1850: 35,000,000 Japs
California, 1850: 92,000 Burgers
Japan, 1950: 83,000,000
Cali, 1950: 10,000,000
So California was growing FAST. But, Japan still had 8x the population of California. Building state of the art passenger rail was a greater priority for them than Californians. And nationally in the US, the Interstate Highway project made a lot more sense than one bullet train prototype from SF to LA.
So CA got a late start on HSR.
