The Dark Side of "Cash for Clunkers"

[Azure_Knight]

I don't see why the US doesn't invest in a mass transit system. If everyone is going the same place in rush hour, wouldn't it clear up the congestion on highways (and get people to their destination on time)? Maybe during a recession it might not be economically feasible to start a project like that, but if we got out of one...

 

[arbygil]

I don't see why the US doesn't invest in a mass transit system. If everyone is going the same place in rush hour, wouldn't it clear up the congestion on highways (and get people to their destination on time)? Maybe during a recession it might not be economically feasible to start a project like that, but if we got out of one...

Well, part of the problem is that each state is run independently, with an independent budget (almost like a mini-country) and individual cities are responsible for providing mass transit systems. Counties can choose to create a mass transit system, but it's rare for states to connect with one another (outside of a few states on the eastern seaboard: Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts...).

I live in Texas. Texas is larger than many European countries (it's seven times larger than the UK). Where I live, in Denton, there is no mass transit system because our public didn't vote one in for our county until ten years ago. Dallas County has had a mass transit system for nearly twenty years. But in about two years, Denton will *finally* have a mass transit system, and that system will connect with Dallas and Fort Worth. But the people had to decide to have one for the county. So our taxes went up to compensate for the mass transit system here.

Everything has to be voted on. And there's a lot of politics involved. It's not up to the US President - it's up to the counties within the states, and the people's votes.