@anubis2814

This part of #CarBrain also bugs me.

I point it out at every opportunity. CarBrain just looks at me with incomprehension: What is she even *talking* about?

But I'm mom, and I know that if I just say it often enough, the kids will eventually eat over their plates. Town council people are next, heh. (I mean I don't care how they eat but I do want them to budget less for cars and more for life).

@anubis2814

I once had a privileged and libertarian undergrad at Dartmouth College snicker at me when I said the US had subsidized the Detroit auto industry.

When I asked him who paid for the interstate highway system you could see his entire life pass before his eyes. He simply had no answer for the question.

I like to think the question challenged his entire existence and that he subsequently changed his perspective on everything. But, alas, I never saw him again.

@anubis2814

... and in many towns, public transit is misused as a vehicle for extremely aggressive advertising ... guess what the rationale is? "but it pays for the bus stop shelters" 🤡

a particular bugbear of mine.

("basic public infrastructure paid for by taxes", apparently an alien concept ...)

@anubis2814 Roads in many countries do make a profit by way of fuel taxes. In most of Europe, the fuel tax revenue significantly exceeds the cost of building and maintaining the roads.

It seems that in the US, they break even at the federal level and usually lose money at the state and city level, suggesting that higher state fuel taxes and a means of distributing some of the revenue to cities would be appropriate.