You are a very silly person.

Hong Kong Island is awesomely pleasant — except for the very small size of the residences. Which is why people live in Kowloon. Being “stacked” is no problem at all and really quite pleasant given the surplus of escalators and elevators — the extremely small apartments are something else.

In Switzerland, they voted to suppress truck traffic and stop road construction. Sure they drive cars, but *look* at their *rail* systems. For them, rail is more convenient for many, many urban and intercity trips. (Rural trips will always be by road.)

If the trains are run at all competently, it’s faster than driving!

The accounting’s trickier, but arguably the government spent a great deal even in the 1900s, when you realize that Central Park and the water system were considered social and welfare programs.

We do spend a lot more on wars and the military since the WWII and since the Cold War started. A *LOT* more. Half a trillion a year as of now. That crowds out spending *and* expertise (because it sucks up ‘heavy industry’ expertise).

The streets must have been torn up pretty much every year, don’t you think? And this was all built with cut-and-cover *underneath operating El lines*.

It’s a fair argument. Robert Moses got things done. He could have been much better- like not split/ruin entire communities or build some mass transit- but he got it done. He tied the boroughs together with huge bridges and vast superhighways (they were “super” at the time, but now their outdated). He had influence on Shea Stadium, Lincoln Center, and other public works projects. Jones Beach, upon opening, broke the mold in crowds and popularity. He was actually better skilled at parks then highways, but he’s the one who got it all done. That is why in general i think Moses was a good man.

On the trains vs. cars debate, a combination of both is needed for a sustainable city. The rich/middle class want/need their cars, the lower class needs trains and mass/transit. Yes, mass transit is more environmentally friendly, but i live IN AMERICA, a society who’s economy is totally dependent on the automobile.

Chinese mega-projects are awesome. Google Chek Lab Kok airport, or the Three Georges Dam. Or all the projects built for the 2008 olympics. They are going through their own “Moses” era, just more modern and Asian. Think about it… the’ve been industrializing, now China’s going through her Progressive Era. Maglevs, airports, huge projects- come to think of it, the entire Middle East and Asia is like the US in 1900, just more modern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.....l_in_China

China is investing over $300 billion in high-speed rail through 2020, in a bid to speed ahead of the rest of the world’s train systems.

16,000 miles of new track by 2020, requiring 117 million tons of concrete just to construct the buttresses on which the tracks will lie. Top speeds from Beijing to Shanghai will approach 220 miles an hour, halving the current travel time to four hours. This year China Railway Company plans to hire 20,000 young engineers.

The Wuhan to Guangzhou MU Train route will start to operate on the 26th of this month. The train is the fastest in the world. All the construction and preparations for the route’s operation are in the final stages.

In a trial operation, the speed of the MU Train reached 394 kilometers per hour, the highest in the world. Though the speed during normal operation may be at 350 kilometers per hour, but this newly built high speed railway may still reduce the travel time of Wuhan to Guangzhou from more than 10 to 3 hours.

The total length of Wuhan-Guangzhou high speed railway is more than 1068 kilometers. The railway connects Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong. The total investment is more than 116 billion yuan.

http://english.cri.cn/6909/200.....535039.htm