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geographical conditions here make such solutions unworkable. The only places mass transit become at all feasible here, although still heavily subsidized, is in the largest cities. And it is not only the cities whose tax dollars pay for your ride to work or the museum: the majority of the subsidy dollars are stolen from the highway funds! The citizen who drives his car or truck pays for your transportation. Increasingly, cities expect everyone else to pay for their 'perks'. I pay my way-why should I also pay yours?

Our highways are in sad shape as money originally collected for infrastructure repairs has been diverted to things like public transportation, bike paths, rails to trails' and other activities remotely linked to something sounding like it could be related to highways. Legislators have become very creative in diverting these funds somewhere else to hoodwink the taxpayers as to where their fuel taxes are actually going. As our bridges begin falling down and road repair reaches a critical point, we don't consider pulling the monies back from peripheral projects. Instead, we contemplate selling our roads, tolling public highways we have already paid for and adding more taxes to the price of gasoline and diesel fuel. This has become a bottomless pit as our roads are filled with potholes and truckers cant afford to deliver crucial goods to market due to increasing price.

We have placed extensive regulation on transit systems in this county. This drives the costs up and assures private enterprise cannot compete with subsidized transit. Competing private systems, sized to maximize dollar return would drive costs down and make public transit less attractive to those who support more mass transit they can milk for profit. Rather than look closely at what makes existing systems so expensive, we have instead had a tendency to try to re-zone cities to meet mass transit's needs, rather than vis-versa. This is nonsensical and can only lead to more top-down limitations on private property and individual rights.

The call for more mass transit then becomes an impetus for a more socialistic society-all so you can have a free ride to the shopping mall. No, public transportation shouldn't be free'. Because it can't be.

Learn more about this author, Linda Sunkle-Pierucki.
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