Your assumption that what the "majority" wants is represented by what the majority is currently doing (driving) is deeply flawed.

If that was the basis for transportation planning, we would have never sunk millions of tax dollars in to roads and the highways in the first place because most people were riding horses or walking. We invested with roads for some good and for some ill.

That was then. This is now: More roads and cars as a solution to our transportation challenges is going to give the majority more traffic, more polluted air and water, and more public health problems. (In the City of Portland, for example, streets and highways have a major effect on stormwater runoff, contributing 66 percent of the total discharge quantity (from both pervious and impervious surfaces) and 77 percent of pollutants in the discharge.)

What we need is a more diverse transportation system. That means relatively fewer cars and roads and more space for bikes, pedestrians, busses and trains integrated into more diverse communities that require less commuting in the first place. That means more transporation choices and a healthier communities and watersheds.

Jim
Car-owner, cyclist, pedestrian, and transit-user