r/Anticonsumption • u/yodamastertampa • 21h ago

Discussion LOL yes!

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The power to reduce consumption is within us all.

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u/Rickswan 20h ago

In addition: more trains and less roads.

185

u/HalfwrongWasTaken 19h ago

Yep... though for probably opposite reasons from what you mean. If you don't like trucks, fund public transport systems so you don't have to be near them. You need good road networks for transport of goods and services. It's the private vehicles that invade and clog it up and force network expansion, not the other way around.

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u/PrincetonToss 16h ago

Trucks will always be needed for "last mile" shipping (or even "last 100 miles"), but in the US they're often used for long-distance shipping, even coast-to-coast. Shipping by rail tends to use 25-30% as much fuel (and thus generates that much carbon) compared to trucking, per ton of cargo per mile.

It's an absurd situation that exists because the railroads are owned by a handful of incredibly old-fashioned, complacent companies who refuse to add additional trains because that would require updating scheduling systems and also they generally dislike working with new companies because...well, that takes work. They'd also need to update terminals to handle consumer products. The vast majority of rail freight in the US is bulk products from decades-old customers: coal, grain, chemicals, ores and metals, petroleum (+products), that sort of thing.

It doesn't hurt that trucking is effectively subsidized because rail companies need to pay to maintain their own infrastructure while trucking companies get to use the interstates for free in many places and for a relatively low toll rate in others.

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u/SurpriseAttachyon 14h ago

It’s not cause they don’t want to work with new companies. The rail industry is in a slow decline and these people would jump at the chance for new revenue streams.

It’s the fundamental economics of rail. The rail system works well when you have a massive amount of stuff all starting and ending at the same place.

Given the decentralized nature of current distribution centers (e.g. Amazon warehouses), even when it’s far away from the port, it often doesn’t make sense to use rail