California will spend 9 trillion dollars, 20 years, and enormous amounts of drama and still have slower trains than Spain. 

But sure make fun of siestas and lazy Europeans and so on. Getting lots done in that frantic American workday of yours? How much of it was spent stuck in traffic?

Average train speed by country:

Director, @baseAds. Founder 
@spindl (acq. @coinbase). Wrote bestseller 'Chaos Monkeys'. 

My FID is lower than all but 52 of you.

It's baffling how much time and money can be wasted without significant progress. Instead of mocking cultural differences, maybe it's time to take a page from Europe's efficiency playbook. Next time you're gridlocked on the freeway, think about what real investment in infrastructure could achieve.