Tertium Quids posts about the Surface Transportation Authorization Act, and parts of the bill that will try to push Americans toward living in more densely populated areas.
I don't think it will work, because we are too stubborn.
We're Americans who love the open spaces and won't give them up easily.
We drive to the beach and sit in hours-worth of traffic delays - and do it again the next year.
We drive the Capital Beltway, even though knowing one person's bad actions could lead to an hour stuck in traffic.
After World War II, I remember hearing stories of traffic jams from Baltimore to Washington - 35 miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Did people return to the trains? No. Did they stop traveling to New York? No. They built highways to get the traffic through Baltimore and other cities.
However much pain bureaucrats dream up in bills, politicians can't deliver it. The politicians will crack because they need votes. Not pictures of people being forced to move closer to downtowns to meet someone else's criteria.
In moving away from densely-populated areas, people have made their economic decisions. They'll hang in there.
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