Funding for highways outpaces public transit - a ‘climate time bomb’ US/ AU

"Roads, roads and more roads.
The US is continuing to spend billions of dollars on expanding enormous highways rather than fund public transport, with a landmark infrastructure bill lauded by Joe Biden only further accelerating the dominance of cars at the expense, critics say, of communities and the climate."

“Nothing is fundamentally changing in terms of modes of transport. This much money going into highway expansion is, for one, a liability into the future, and two, it just doesn’t work. We’ve been expanding highways for decades on decades, and everyone consistently finds themselves stuck in traffic.”

"The US’s fixation with hulking roads – along with the growth of supersized cars that are responsible for about 40,000 deaths a year in accidents, a toll that has ticked up in recent years – has led to calls for a rethink. This month, around 200 climate, biking and walkability groups called for a national moratorium on highway expansions due to the ills they bring.
The highway system we have built in our country is unsustainable, both financially and environmentally, and disproportionately harms low-income and Black and brown communities,” an open letter from the coalition says."
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/biden-spending-highways-public-transport-climate-crisis
#roads #cars #harm #expansion #HighwayUpgrades #ClimateChange #FossilFuels #MobilityDesign