is transport in US really unreliable?

Question

im in australia and our transport system is really bad. apparently yours is too. do you have any stories to tell me? love to hear them.

as for wampaskitty2001 what do you think this is you think there are kangaroos walkn down the street here?

Answer 1

Driving is easy here and the US has one of the best road systems in the world.

Our bus system isn't the best and many cities don't have a good bus system to commute with, but the major cities do have a bus system. We just don’t have a lot of people using the bus to travel between states (and those that do are lower class citizens). We didn’t have a lot of public transportation, but since the gas crunch of the 1970s our major cities have been working on improving it. However, when I have to use the bus to commute or get around town I find the various bus systems can be a bit arcane.

We have a huge number of airplanes flying each day, they run on pretty tight schedules, which the airlines have been doing for several decades. A major snowstorm, accident or similar event can delay planes, but these events aren't that common. Air travel is one of the safest modes of travel and the most reliable.

Our trains don't transport people a lot. The exception is in the North West. From Chicago east to Boston and South to Washington DC is a pretty well traveled train route. You can also take trains as far south as Florida. It is possible to take a train from Alabama thru Texas to the California on the West Coast, but that is not commonly done.

Germany (Hitler) invented the idea of the super freeway and General Eisenhower (Supreme Commander of Allied Forces Europe during WW2) was impressed. When President Eisenhower learned that it took months to cross from the East Coast to the West Coast, even for military trucks and jeeps, and some never made it. He knew something had to be done. As a result the US has the best interstate system in the world. So driving is pretty easy. We still have rural dirt roads, but they are getting harder and harder to find. Another safe thing about out freeways is that they were all designed for cars to be able to travel at 70 mph, but most states have laws that limit the speed to 55 mph or 60 mph in some stretches (60 mph = 100 kph).

The further west you go the more you need a car. In the old part of the US; the North East roads and cities were designed long before cars were invented. Past the Mississippi River though most cities were designed after the car was in use. A lot of the cities were wooden buildings built along a dirt road. So when it came time to put in a new road changes were easy to make. They were not so easy in the Northeast because a lot of buildings were more permanent structures that had been there for a long time.

If you are in Texas or California without a car then you are practically crippled! You need a valid credit card and an International Driver's License that is accepted in the US before you can rent a car here. You should be able to find the forms and take the class to earn a license that you can use in the US from your Department of Motor Vehicles or who ever handles Australian automobile licensing.

The US is split by the Rocky Mountains so they are no rivers or streams that run for a good distance from East to West. The rivers don't have a lot of river traffic and most of it is commercial. The Mississippi River runs from the Great Lakes and Canada down south to the Gulf of New Mexico. It is an old river with some deep channels so a lot of boats travel up and down the Mississippi, mostly commercial, but there are some passenger boats as well.

I haven't been to Australia, but the US has been working on its interstate road system more than your people have. The major way that goods are transported to our cities is by road. This means we have a very good and very extensive road system. To give you an idea of what I mean the German Autobahn has some of the best designed roads in the world, but our freeways are almost as good and twice as large. Most parts of the Autobahn have two lanes of traffic running both ways, like our highways. Most US freeways have 3-4 lanes of traffic each way. German roads do have gentler curves, but then they allow cars to drive over 200 kph in some places (but not as many as you would think). Montana, a state in the Northwest has a lot of miles of empty miles. They have a major highway with an unlimited speed limit.

I think if you can drive or if you want to fly then you will find it easy to get about in the US, otherwise you are going to have some problems.

Answer 2

Yes it is, only major cities have public transportation, school buses aside.
The main problem is the drivers themselves most think it is there god given right to drive and do so whenever, wherever, and at whatever speed they want. The majority speed, do not signal, clutter their cars and obstruct their field of vision, talk on the cell-phone, and play their music so loud they couldn't hear an ambulance siren.
Roads themselves are generally worse the more northerly and centrally in the country you go due to weather and commercial vehicle damage (ice and semi trucks)
Many drivers do follow the rules of the road, unfortunately we are the minority.

Answer 3

Hello Sandstar. 1st I do not think that the train would have been cancelled for the past week, without there being sign's & notices arround the station. Then if the trains had been cancelled for the week like you say, then the TOC (Train Operating Company) would have to provide a bus service as they have to sign up to be providing a service when they won their contract & if they do not provide a service then they are in breach of their contract and so could loose their franchise. The TOC also have to have staff on the station to provide the information to their customers that there is no trains running and that there is a replacement bus service. If as you say there was a person smoking on the station even though there were signs saying No Smoking, then the simple thing you should have done is gone to the ticket office and reported it to the station staff.

Answer 4

Unless you live in a major city in this country (New York, Chicago) you don't have much! I can't think of any crazy stories off the top of my head but I will let you know...

Answer 5

Don't know where you heard that, our transportation service here in the USA is good, much faster than the Kangroo.

Answer 6

You heard wrong. Our transportation system is just fine.