US spends billions on roads rather than public transport in ‘climate time bomb’. New analysis finds money from Biden’s $1.2tn infrastructure bill has overwhelmingly been spent on widening highways for cars Guardian Oliver Milman Thu 29 Feb 2024 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. Since the passage of the enormous $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, hailed by Biden as a generational effort to upgrade the US’s crumbling bridges, roads, ports and public transit, money has overwhelmingly poured into the maintenance and widening of roads rather than improving the threadbare network of bus, rail and cycling options available to Americans, a new analysis has found. Just a fifth of the money has gone so far to public transit, with much of the remainder also facilitating more car driving, such as the refurbishment of bridges. Of reported funds dispersed to states, more than half – around $70bn – have been spent on the resurfacing and expansion of highways, a process that researchers have consistently found only spurs greater use of cars and therefore more congestion. Just a fifth of the money has gone so far to public transit, with much of the remainder also facilitating more car driving, such as the refurbishment of bridges. This spending is a “climate time bomb”, according to the new Transportation for America analysis, which calculates that more than 178m tons of greenhouse gases will be emitted due to planned highway expansions by 2040, only slightly offset by emissions-reducing measures that also stem from the bill. “We’re seeing investments that are not too conscious of the climate across the board from states,” said Corrigan Salerno, policy associate at Transportationfor America, a transport policy group.

“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.” Funding from the federal government has been given to states with broad flexibility on how to use it and state authorities, by and large, have chosen to persist with car-centric infrastructure. The Biden administration’s department of transportation did advise states to prioritize road repair, rather than expansion, and to bear in mind communities, usually of color, that have been severed by highways and are subjected to the resulting air pollution. There is little sign of improved fortunes for public transport, however. Rail and bus services were badly hit during the Covid pandemic, with a lack of commuter revenue causing headaches for several city systems seeking to cover their basic operational costs. Some jurisdictions, meanwhile, appear openly hostile to non-car options. Lawmakers in Indiana this week moved to ban dedicated bus lanes in Indianapolis, while officials in Miami Beach recently rejected a plan to extend a rail line to help alleviate congestion......read on    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/biden-spending-highways-public-transport-climate-crisis    UNITED STATES JUST DOESN'T GET IT- WHILE VANCOUVER DOES........About Metro 2050: Regional Growth Strategy https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/metro-2050-the-regional-growth-strategy........and........Transport 2050 is the new Regional Transportation. Strategy (RTS) https://www.translink.ca/news/2022/january/transport%202050%20sets%20bright%20new%20vision%20for%20regional%20transportation