I Love It When Politicians (or Crown Princes) Decide that They're Engineers

I have mostly ignored this boondoggle because it is clear it was doomed from the beginning. But let us dive into one aspect. Why Saudi Arabia’s Neom Is Doomed

Neom is supposed to be a "city" 170 kilometers long, 500 meter tall linear arcology. Two buildings built 200 meters apart, 500 meters tall. Good luck with that.

Boyle examines the claim that you can travel from one end of Neom to the other in 20 minutes and has a little fun with math:

To travel 170 km in 20 minutes, you’d have to be traveling at 510kmph, which is a bit faster than and the world’s fastest train. Of course, 510kmph assumes no stops along the way, which might be a bit inconvenient for people who live near the middle of the city.

If you assume one train station every quarter mile, and you assume that the doors are open for 30 seconds at each station, that comes to 206 minutes just with the doors open. "206 minutes is of course a bit more than 20 minutes." Now every 1/4 mile seems excessive, so if you say every mile, well 50 minutes is still longer than 20 minutes. Better hope there is never a crash, an outage, no one commits suicide by throwing themselves in front of a train, etc. Any of those things might delay the train.

There are more problems, like a lack of resources, potable water, etc.

The only abundant resources that a group of consultants could identify were sunlight and unlimited access to salt water.

What could possibly go wrong?

Here is the example of the Dutch "perfect city." It didn't work out too well in the end.

Does anyone remember Pruit-Igoe in St. Louis? Apparently not. Though the demolition made for interesting footage in Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. But then what's not to love about explosive demolition coupled with music by Philip Glass?