Streetsblog New York City

Certainly our national automobile transportation system is the most “socialist” element of our nation. Not only in that it is publicly funded, but also in the way it has dictated our lifestyle. Central planning at it best. What’s worse is that although it is publicly funded it is also completely exclusive. The majority of roads are limited to government approved forms of transportation, other forms are either too dangerous or outright illegal. The legal vehicles allowed on our publicly funded autoroads are provided by private companies, and have a high cost of entry, meaning that those who cannot afford the legal vehicles are not allowed on the publicly funded roads. How great it must be to sell an invention that requires massive amounts of infrastructure to function, and to have to force of the government on your side to get the public to pay for that infrastructure. I imagine cars are a lot easier to sell when the roads are already there.

The whole idea of “public transportation” vs. “private transportation” in America is absurd. You can’t take a car off the lot without using our massive public transportation system. Just try to get a car from a dealership to your home without burning rubber on a publicly funded road. And of you’re of the “live free or die” variety (which I happen to be), there is certainly no public transportation system more regulated than our system of publicly funded autoroads. In order to use this public transportation system, not only do I have to pay a private company thousands of dollars for a government approved vehicle, I also have to register that vehicle with the state, get tested and licensed by the state, carry that government issued license around me at all times, purchase mandated insurance from a private company, drive at a certain speed, wait until I’m a certain age, etc. The list goes on.

Contrary to convention, the “private” automobile is anything but, and the “freedom” it offers is a sheer fallacy.

And tens of billions of your tax dollars are about to be wasted “bailing out” the detroit basket cases. why not bail out urban america’s beleaguered transit systems instead?