TODAY IN SOCIALIST WISHFUL THINKING, INFRASTRUCTURE EDITION.

Read LeeAnn Hall's column, and revel in the fantasies.  "Reducing the miles Americans have to drive would mean enormous savings, cleaner air, and more connected communities."  Who can be opposed to Good Things?

In cities and in rural areas, in red states and blue states, most residents want cleaner and more connected communities. Public transit — including trains, buses, and dial-a-ride services — and accessible walking and bike routes give us healthy, clean, and affordable ways for everyone to get where they need to go.

But for too long, policymakers have sold us the false choice that we must fund highways above all else. They continue to waste billions of our tax dollars on highway expansion projects that pollute our air and increase traffic, instead of funding sidewalks, safe biking routes, and robust public transportation options. This has resulted in a system where most people must drive for every trip to meet their daily needs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. This spring’s Earth Day celebrations gave us the opportunity to step back, imagine our future, and commit to the changes that get us there. And to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst effects of climate change, we must address the elephant in the room: transportation.

Here I thought Earth Day was an opportunity to give thanks that we are still here, never mind what the Doomsday Cult warned us.

But if we're going to herd that elephant, what's the plan?

If we expanded transportation options and reduced the miles that people need to drive by 30 percent by 2050, that would free up a lot of money in our wallets to spend on the things we need. On average, each household would save more than $3,000 a year from reduced fuel, maintenance, and depreciation costs for their vehicles. If better transportation choices allowed families to go from owning two cars to one, it would save them $12,000 per year!

And it would clean our air by reducing harmful emissions — by up to 3,100 megatons of greenhouse gasses. That’s the same as preventing emissions from almost 8,000 natural gas-fired plants.

Once upon a time, wishes were horses. Is there any better metaphor for our degradation than that wishes are now magic buses?  Show us the business plans, the schedules, the routes.

Recently, federal legislation was introduced to provide more operational funds to transit. This would help many transit agencies across the country that are facing fiscal shortfalls invest in more services, run more routes, and increase the frequency of trains and buses. The bill, the “Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act” introduced by Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA), already has more than 100 co-sponsors.

It's so much more fun, though, to carp about Catastrophic Climate Change than to work the problem. Legislation, whether sponsored, debated, or signed into law, only accidentally works the problem.  A law with an ambitious sounding title does not, by itself, accomplish anything.