Steven Greenhut on the Public Transportation Boondoggle

Americans suffer under the delusion that transportation systems are just that—systems for transporting people from one destination to another. What most of us fail to recognize, writes Steven Greenhut, is that the politicians, activists, and planners who play the greatest role in creating those systems have far different goals than improving the way we move from Point A to Point B. To today's transportation movers and shakers, Greenhut explains, such systems are giant jobs-creation programs designed to boost the economy and provide high wages to members of influential unions; and the key means by which to remake society in a way that is nicer to the environment and leads to a changed citizenry that is less likely to use automobiles to get around. Think of transportation these days less as civil engineering and more as social engineering.