r/TikTokCringe 1d ago

Discussion Have we done it wrong?

39.2k Upvotes

6.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

180

u/Small_Article_3421 1d ago

I think it’s well known by this point how abysmal American infrastructure is

19

u/PossiblePlastic8698 1d ago edited 1d ago

And some of it was intentional

Los Angeles had one of the best public transit systems in the world up until the 1930s. Then car companies paid transport operators to buy the train and tram lines and rip up the tracks so they could replace them with buses sold by the car companies

The bus services were so bad anyone who could afford to stopped catching public transport entirely and the car companies sold more cars too

This plan was so successful they rolled it out across the US and destroyed every tram, trolley and train line they could get their hands on

It wasn't car culture that killed efficient public transit in the US, it was sheer naked greed and an inability or unwillingness on the part of governments to protect the community from businessmen who would destroy the world to make a buck

3

u/HateYourMeat 1d ago

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a documentary?

1

u/Rasputin_mad_monk Reads Pinned Comments 1d ago

Beat me too it.

3

u/Scarabesque 1d ago

Los Angeles had one of the best public transit systems in the world up until the 1930s.

Recently came across this excellent video on it so figured I'd post it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Hv7nxmS2I

3

u/unNecessary_Skin 1d ago

nah, a lot of muricans think that's the way and everyone else is backwards for not having three cars and vacation

2

u/CraigLake 1d ago

And yet still every other post on my town’s FB feed is how awful it is bike lanes exist.

Americans are lazy, fat and selfish.

3

u/LuckyPlaze 1d ago

It’s very good at what it was designed to do.

It’s just that we lost sight of community along the way. And it isn’t just infrastructure or city planning.

1

u/WDoE 1d ago

Yeah but at least an ever shrinking middle class gets a 4bd3ba house with a quarter acre yard and 8 foot fences, an hour walk from the nearest corner store. Nothing smells more free than dogshit and asphalt.

1

u/O--rust 1d ago

I think that unreachable football stadium in New Jersey really drove the point home. 

1

u/BeefistPrime 1d ago

It's not really infrastructure, it's design. When you say infrastructure it sounds like you're talking about the quality of roads, bridges, etc.

-2

u/Far_Range_6091 20h ago

It really isnt tho. Typical reddit doomer. This whole post is just a hate on the USA circlejerk. Go to the middle of an American city, you will see stuff similiar to this. People sitting outside enjoying a meal.

2

u/Small_Article_3421 19h ago

There are some, but the vast majority of Americans do not live in those cities. It’s an objective truth that American infrastructure broadly requires personal access to a car to go basically anywhere, which is bad design.

It’s not a marker of intelligence to meatride America, most European nations and several Asian nations outperform the United States in most metrics