But doesn't your subsidy argument ignore that much if not most of the cost of roads is paid for by gas taxes (state, federal and local) as well as sales taxes on cars (generally among the highest revenue sources in the states) taxes on trucks and motor vehicle registration fees. Add all those together and their subsidy, if any, is far lower than for mass transit if there is a subsidy at all.

Where I live, local roads are built and maintained by the local municipality. 100% of the costs come from property taxes and special assessments.

Only State and Federal highways get gas tax $$.

Local roads are indeed free for those who don't own property.

When our Interstate Highway system was concieved and building of the roads began, Eisenhower was President and the top marginal tax rate on incomes over $400,000 was - get ready - you might not remember this, under the Republican Eisenhower administration - a whopping 91%.

Democrat Kennedy reduced that to 70% on incomes more than $200,000.

In 1982, that was reduced by Reagan to 50% on incomes over $85,600. At the same time, Reagan was ramping up defecit spending and running up the National Debt which had reached a 47-year low by the time he took office. Reaganites love to tout the "great economy" of the Reagan era, but it's easy to give the illusion of a good economy when you don't have to have any money in the bank when you write the checks. The real legacy of the Reagan era has come home to roost in recent examples of the failure of levies in New Orleans and the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota. That's the real Reagan legacy.

The gross federal debt now stands at 63.5% of GDP. Of that, 33.5 percentage points were contributed by Reagan-Bush, 6 points by G. W. Bush, and 6.1 points by the Private For-Profit Banks of the Federal Reserve printing more fiat money. All while our infrastructure is crumbling down around our ears.

If we want roads, bridges, rails, etc. we are going to have to pay for them. The Republicans in government don't want to address this fact.

I think you also might include much of our military spending, which is directed at ensuring a steady supply of oil, in order to sustain our blessed American lifestyle.

Oh, and:

Local roads are indeed free for those who don't own property.

is a crock even in those cases where local roads are paid for *only* by special assessments and property taxes. Or do renters not pay their landlord's property taxes? And of course, developers build the assessment pricing into the cost of owned housing, which then in turn affects the cost of rental housing as the market is affected. One also notes that owners (as well as everyone else) might have a nice strong incentive to want good local roads, so that emergency services can get there quickly, for example.

Really, the "pity the poor property owner" schtick is so very very tired.

The gas tax is a tax, like sales taxes or income taxes. Tax revenues can fund roads or transit. There's no reason to isolate gas taxes from the general budget. Otherwise, we'll have to start ripping up roads when people switch to plug-in hybrids, because there won't be enough gas sold to cover costs. Absurd.

In 2004, the Federal Highway Administration reported that, across all levels of government, "user fees" such as gas taxes, tolls, vehicle registration fees and other fees covered 56.3% of the total cost of building, operating and maintaining streets and highways in the United States. The rest of the money came from sales taxes, property taxes and other non-user-related taxes - in other words, subsidies - as well as from proceeds from bonds and interest and the like.

Studies from the mid-90's found that total government subsidies to autos and trucks totalled nearly 1 a trillion dollars in 1995. See http://lightrailnow.org/myths/m_000010.htm

Plus, transit agencies have to cover lots of costs that aren't included in gas-tax "Highway" spending: police and security, parking, and maintenance, among others.