Exactly, but not in Canada because we don’t want to for whatever reason. Ironic thing is that public transport takes up a lot less physical space for infrastructure than freeway of similar capacity with interchanges, so public transportation actually protects farmers from having their livelihood encroached on by highway development. Two tracks and a station not much larger than the average barn leaves way more arable land than a 6-lane looping highway interchange, not to mention rail infrastructure is way narrower than a similar capacity road to begin with.
Actually, Canada used to have pretty good rural rail transport pre WWII, on par with rural Europe in the same time period. Passenger and freight trains used the same tracks without issue before the rise of precision scheduled railroading (which was implemented purely to save costs and gives lower quality freight service than the conventional system). You can thank CN and CP for being openly hostile to passenger rail nowadays.
Even small rural towns can be designed to very walkable and less car centric.
Exactly, but not in Canada because we don’t want to for whatever reason. Ironic thing is that public transport takes up a lot less physical space for infrastructure than freeway of similar capacity with interchanges, so public transportation actually protects farmers from having their livelihood encroached on by highway development. Two tracks and a station not much larger than the average barn leaves way more arable land than a 6-lane looping highway interchange, not to mention rail infrastructure is way narrower than a similar capacity road to begin with.
Actually, Canada used to have pretty good rural rail transport pre WWII, on par with rural Europe in the same time period. Passenger and freight trains used the same tracks without issue before the rise of precision scheduled railroading (which was implemented purely to save costs and gives lower quality freight service than the conventional system). You can thank CN and CP for being openly hostile to passenger rail nowadays.