Reply #5: So why do we pour all this money into an car-centric system?

[gratuitous]

There are a lot of hidden costs to automobile transport, and the full costs certainly not covered by user fees (such as licensing, gas taxes, etc.). Yet all levels of government, on both sides of the aisle, seem obsessed with doing everything possible for automobile use. When you hear people complain about transportation costs, it will almost invariably be about setting aside bike lanes, or dedicating more parking spaces to registered car pools, or expanding the mass transit systems.

Anyone who proposes something different is derided with a sneer, and even trying to recognize the problem invites a host of people against any ideas because their situation is totally unique and outside the system, and it wouldn't work perfectly for them, so just leave things as they are, except for the personal road they want for themselves from home to the office to the store. And the air gets a little thicker, and the water gets a little browner.