I saw the headline and thought, "we ripping out the highways or doubling down on them with expensive bandaid 'fixes'?"
Doubling down it is. Crap like this is why Biden will never be a "climate president": we can't address the systemic issues that are the primary drivers of climate change as long as we keep trying to work within the confines of said systems.
Some of the blame lies at the feet of state DOTs that are still drawing up these projects. In Austin's case, I think the I-35 widening is basically being forced down the city's throat by a revanchist state government.
For sure, state DOTs are completely complicit in the problem (some more than others), as they're the ones deciding and designing the projects (highways are generally their jurisdiction). However the federal government has complete say in what projects they help fund, and could definitely set standards dictating the types of projects to move forward.
@regul@fireweed That’s how US government works. Democrats propose to do something moderate that would help a little bit but they already compromised on important details before they started, Republicans throw a tantrum, Democrats capitulate, billions more dollars get poured down the toilet (or into highways) with very few dollars going to something useful but the net effect being overwhelmingly bad.
Biden is a far right president he just isn't Trump. The only reason we must vote for him. This makes our two teir government bullshit. Because we will never get the changes needed under this current system.
It will always be voting for the lesser evil who is always moving futher right.