We need better transit in the United States!
After riding China's bullet trains back and forth across the country, I couldn't help feel as if the US is being left behind, at least when it comes to transit. During my one month in China, I started by taking planes across the country — three in total. But about halfway through the trip, I realized how dead simple and convenient the bullet trains were. I ended up taking four bullet trains in total. The last one, from Zhengzhou to Shenzhen, covered a distance of 992 miles, or about the distance between New York and Jacksonville, Florida. The trip took a little over six hours. The prices of the train tickets topped out around $100 from what I saw, which was the most mind-blowing thing for me. Train tickets on the only remotely high-speed train in the US, the Acela Express from New York to Washington, DC, frequently go for more than $200. Experts have said that the reason for the lack of investment in the US in high-speed rail is its large land size and th...