Amazingly, people live where rail is not an option. The interstate system offers more possibilities than rail. Rail also does not deliver to your door.
What parts of the country don't have rail as an option? Pretty much the entire US is covered in rail, especially around population centers since that's why many developed there in the first place.
Most people don't get tractor trailer deliveries to their door so a driverless truck wouldn't have an advantage there.
I work in the logistics industry. Just because there are railroad tracks through a town, does not mean there are active stops. Also, while most people do not get tractor trailer delivers to their door, most business do. Especially for items too large to send via UPS or FedEx. Total US public highways miles: 161K [1]
Total US Railroads miles (Class I):100K [2]
That's pretty much a tautology - cities exist because trains went there. I live in a state covered with extinct towns, because the tracks went another way back in the day.
But sadly those tracks are bicycle trails or even roads now. Eminent domain space is problematical; rails always go interesting places; tracks have largely disappeared from the landscape by having their route repurposed.
Right but I'm curious if, as the GP claimed, there were any population centers in the US not well connected via rail. It's possible that when the interstates were built, that they created new population centers not connected by rail but I'm unaware of any. Do you know of any?
Certainly interstate highways had an effect - they squashed growth in towns NOT visited. Unless you have a freeway exit in or near your small town, it can't grow today. Similar to the way rail did the job a century earlier.
