GOP: My way, the highway
The Republicans Party leadership, whose base lives mostly in automobile-dependent areas, wants all federal gas tax dollars to go toward highways — their platform says so. Cities and towns that thrive on more environmentally friendly multimodal transportation would be left to fend for themselves — plus subsidize highways. That's because residents of walkable communities not only walk, ride bicycles, and take transit more, but they also drive primarily on local streets that miss out on gas tax revenues — which are mostly funneled to rural and exurban areas. The platform offers nothing for mass transit, walking, and bicycling — it goes so far as to say that states that want to fund these modes with federal transportation dollars must be stopped.
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