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With the recent crash in Taiwan, I have been doing some thinking about planes, and in my opinion we should work towards other methods of transportation.   Planes do a lot of things well. They are fast, pretty comfortable, they serve food, and have generally friendly staff once you are on(though even now they are all female.) Overall its usually not a bad ride though. Airports however are a pain. weather often delays or cancels flights, and the jam packed runways make taking off and landing time consuming, but mostly just annoying.   It may be just my 9/11 bias, but I don't think they are too safe. I know driving is way worse, but we drive a lot more often, and sometimes Impaired. Pilots also are supposed to be highly trained, and they often have help from a co pilot or their control center... drivers can just be a 16 year old. Crashes still manage to happen, and those are deadly.   I know I just talked about solar panels... but Jet fule is both expensive and harmful for the environment. there is no way I can think of to generate enough thrust to fly using alternatives though. Maybe someday...  but no time soon.   If we don't use planes how do we get places? Driving isn't much better after all. Well I think the answer comes from the past. Historys most popular mass transit systems: boats and trains.   Boats are still used to transport cargo, so why not people? For a vacation why not spend the first few days taking it easy cruise style. It may take longer, so some buisness people wouldn't like it, but I know boats can acess the internet from the cruise I went on like 10 years ago. as for the environment, its a lot easier to move a boat using wind and clean electricity than a plane. Also if it gets less dangerous neuclear subs would be cool.   The real improvements could come from trains though. Their are some really cool high speed trains out there, and electric power is the way to go. There are basicly no train accidents other than users finding dumb ways to die.  Trains can be large to fit lots of people, and you could just hire workers to make it like an airplane.   If we set up a renewable energy train system, travel in the future may even be free! if so we could easily see our grand kids, and if they make online friends on a forum it would be easy to meet.   EDIT: I forgot to set guidlines for the discussion. This isn't a thread about the Taiwan crash, so if you wanna talk about your reaction to it and post the youtube videos make your own thread. This is a thread about transportation and the direction you think humanity should move towards... or you can tear my ideas appart.