We need to make [cost of car use] calculations, to develop awareness. We need to change our mindset and reset the cash register. Remember the quote "We ‘invest’ in highways. We ‘invest’ in airports. But we ‘subsidize’ trains"? More than simply remember, we should alter it. Officials attack rail and other public transportation for 'losing money,' when, in fact, these civic necessities no more lose money than schools and police. Never should we accept the phrase 'money-losing public transportation' without considering the costs of sprawl, of pollution, of congestion, of commuting - of the money-losing car. We know what should be done (for mass transit need mass), but how to do it is more difficult.


Jane Holtz Kay, an author, journalist and architecture critic for The Nation, has written widely on the built and natural environment. Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America, and How We Can Take It Back. New York: Crown, 1997. p. 346-47