• Zoift [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Environmentally? Fuck nah. Massive expenditure of energy to fly vs just coast on tires or rails.

      • keepcarrot [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's kind of a shame that a cross-country train is way more expensive than a plane here, by about an order of magnitude. I assume it's because of the labour cost of 6 hours vs 30? or that it's catered to a few luxury passengers rather than packing passengers in like sardines? Probably, something like that

        • cawsby [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Tracks and bridges are not cheap to maintain.

          • keepcarrot [she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I imagine that comes into the emissions cost per mile or something (likewise, runways, plane maintenance etc etc)

            • cawsby [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              The coming age of electric air travel is going to be noisy but cleaner.

              I have mixed feelings about the constant sound of drones in my life.

              • keepcarrot [she/her]
                ·
                3 years ago

                I'd hope that commercial (or public) air travel won't be done by drone helicopters and not be used for commuting. But the lathe of heaven turns

                • cawsby [he/him]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  Electric passenger plane travel is coming , but not by quad copters. It is still as loud or louder than jet engines. Cargo by drone planes is going to be constant though. The sky will always be full of moving lights except in some dark sky preserves. I might retire near one just to stay sane.

        • wtypstanaccount04 [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          A bit of both. We can have really good passenger rail, but it is labor intensive over long distances.

          • keepcarrot [she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I live within the free public transport zone of my city, so I'm aware of short distance travel rail. If I want to visit family on the other side of the country, the cost calculations change (for now).

      • playboicarti [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah but what if you want to visit another continent or live on island?

    • ThisMachinePostsHog [they/them, he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Physically safest, yeah I'm sure. Just a couple years ago we went an entire year without a single airplane accident or crash, globally. Millions upon millions fly every year, and all those people travelled safely without a fatality, that's pretty dope.

      It sucks we aren't at a point where we can get people around the world while staying carbon-neutral yet. I guess when it comes to getting someone from one side of the globe to the other in a day, planes are the best we have for now.