The retread infrastructure “why can’t we all get along” issue is once again on the docket. The amorphous plan includes trillions for projects designed to heap money on Democrat supporters in return for their steadfast votes. Republicans who do not want to look cheap and want a highway, bridge, waterway etc., named after them, fall in line on the massive spending and for what? I thought we were “greening” our world.
If in fact, we’re seeing the inflection point of turning away from automobiles and lifestyles built around them, shouldn’t we be investing in other infrastructure? The recent announcement of spending money building out broadband in rural areas seems a better bet on the future. People working from home don’t need cars, they need internet. Yes, we need to at least keep our bridges from falling down but the transition to a dispersed population no longer dependent on transportation for their incomes demands we look to the future and not the past. Any investment in traditional roadways must account for the advances in technology. Smaller lanes, fewer traffic controls, re-imagining of space devoted to parking are all front and center with technology in hand.
Public transportation is a loser. Outside of major metropolitan cities, counting the number of people on busses and subway cars even before the impact of the pandemic, tells you it is severely inefficient. The coming advent of transportation on demand will relegate most public transportation obsolete. That is, it would be more efficient and cheaper to provide subsidies (if necessary) to those now dependent on public transportation than to spend the billions now being considered in the infrastructure bills being shopped.
Beware when the political elite agree on anything. It nearly always means spending money we don’t have and on something we probably don’t need.
Current Day Publius 