It's a two lane road

California's freeway building boom from the 50's to 70's is best remembered, but at the same time, the state built thousands of miles of 2-lane rural expressways, those beautiful roads with gentle curves that run through the contryside. They don't stand out to observers like the freeways do, as they are at a smaller scale that doesn't dominate the landscape like freeways.

The path of a high speed train is about as wide as a two lane road. This video shows the view out of the front of a train in Germany traveling at over 180mph.



Compare that to your last drive in the country. The high speed railway, 40 feet wide, including overhead power poles, and a rural highway, two 12 foot lanes and two 8 foot bike lanes/shoulders - 40 feet. But also understand that the high speed train line can carry more people than a much wider freeway, at three times the speed.