I thought a bit of lighter news would be good in the wake of the many issues and controversies in the world.
Japan has done it again, they have made a train that can go 311 miles per hour, beating China's CRH380A which as a top speed of 302 mph. It is fun to see the competition for these high speed trains, especially when America is nowhere in the running to have it. China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan all have a train in the top ten fastest in the world, while a few european countries also have some of the fastest trains. The push from these countries for public transportation options is great. While I think its cool to own a car and not have to rely on public transit, which sometimes can be iffy, its good that these countries have developed such good public transit options and operations. If our systems were even half of what they have in the asian and european countries, public transit would be so much more viable. It also shows a difference in the cultures of the regions, we want our won thing, and not have to share transport with others. Cars are a really individualist thing, compared to trains and mass transit systems used in Asia and Europe.
http://www.businessinsider.com/japans-jr-tokai-l0-series-shinkansen-mag-lev-train-2013-9?op=1
I agree with you when you said that cars are an individualist thing. We don't have to share cars with the public and compared to having to share a train with a bunch of people. In the Milpitas/San Jose area they are currently trying to expand the BART system all the way down to San Jose from Fremont. The construction and traffic is HORRIBLE but such a large amount of people rely on BART to commute to the city for work that they made the decision to extend BART all the way to San Jose. I personally have never taken BART, but I do have many friends that rely on BART to commute to the city for work and find that BART is very unreliable and can often have many delays.
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