Originally Posted by
bragi
It's important to remember math. The interstate highway system, indeed virtually all of our car-centered infrastructure would never have been built, and would not still be here, were it not for a huge amount of public spending. I'm not a big fan of Elly Blue's book (her moral superiority is very Portlandia, and the writing is poor), but she makes a very good point that all transportation infrastructure is subsidized by taxpayers, and car infrastructure especially so. The national investment she calls for for bicycle infrastructure is far less than what the Big Dig in Boston cost, and the potential benefits are greater.
Good point. It doesn't make much sense to compare a fully funded system (highways) with systems that get only leftover crumbs of funding (bikes and public transit). Bikes and all public transit together cost less than ten percent of total transportation dollars. More than 90 percent goes to highways.