Stick Vega For Governor - Scott Walker Was Right About The Train For The Wrong Reasons!
Boy, was I mad when Scott Walker killed the high speed rail project.
How cool would it have been to travel to Chicago and back quickly while having an ice cold beer! It would have helped my business a lot. Clients could come to The Blast Factory with no hassle. Boom!
Scott Walked killed the train. It was part of his plan to divide and energize his base rural voters against those on the train route - mainly urban democrats.
While Mr. Walker was wrong in his intent. The train indeed would have been expensive to build and operate over the long term.
More importantly, as self-driving cars begin to take hold in the next few years, train ridership around the country will plummet.
A new report from Boston Consulting Group sketches a dire future for passenger-train travel and warns private and public rail officials to consider autonomous vehicles as a “serious competitive threat.” Over time, the report says, at least 40 percent of current train passengers will prefer using a driverless car instead of a train.
In fact, many parts of public transportation will be disrupted by autonomous vehicles as well as taxi service and companies like Lyft and Uber.
Scott Walker got lucky on this one. I am positive he was not thinking ahead.
As much as I would love to use high-speed rail, you will not find it in my platform for Governor. What you will find instead is investments into the infrastructure, AI, internet and clean energy that will make Wisconsin the coolest, cleanest, and most efficient place to live and work in the world.
We need to keep thinking and planning ahead. Not dividing groups of people. And not looking backwards.
Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist, former CEO, and author of LESS KILLING. Stick currently lives and creates explosive pop art at The Blast Factory in Madison, Wisconsin. Not limited to one medium, he works in gunpowder drawings and paintings, photography, digital art and writing. Please follow Stick on Facebook and/or Twitter.