Originally Posted by
saxman66
If you're referring to private automobile, than that is far from any type of privately funded mode of transportation. In fact its probably the opposite, when you consider that the last several years we've had to bail out the Highway Trust Fund with several billion dollars each year. In fact $63 billion over the last two years and that came from your income tax, not your gas tax.
Plus how exactly is giving more transportation choices stopping people from moving freely about the country? Is having more public transit options such as rail, buses, flying, driving, make us less mobile? I should think not.
The problem with the Highway Trust fund as with any government trust fund is it's just a name. The tax dollars that go into them are not really there, they are in the general fund. Money is fungible.
When I say private I mean transportation that the individual decides where and when it goes. Public transportation in the left's eyes is not more choice, it's there to replace individual choice. If the government owns the means of transportation they can decide where you can go and when. When they don't own the means of transport as in air travel today, they exert control in who goes and how much of a hassle it is through "security". Government in general and the left in particular is never about "choice" or "freedom".
The great personal transportation system in the USA is a manifestation of our freedom as set forth in the US Constitution. Population density and shorter distances do not fully explain why the rest of the world emphasize mass public transit.