U.S. rail transit investments have been costly failures that have paradoxically resulted in less transit use as bus funds were cannibalized for rail. Los Angeles, as a typical example, has lost more than a fifth of its transit riders since it started spending billions of dollars on rail. In the new Mecca of urban planning, transit accounts for only 2.8 percent of trips, with a mere 0.3 percent using MAX, and only about one percent of the Tri-Met's service area population is within walking distance of MAX stations. But air quality in Los Angeles has been improving dramatically year by year, even during its rapid growth phase of the 1980s. There were only seven smog alerts in the 1996 smog season compared with 121 in 1977.
Markets continue to do a good job of allocating resources, including farmland.
U.S. cropland use peaked in 1930. We continue to feed millions more on less land because of improved farming methods. The demand for agricultural land would fall even further if the 105th Congress continues the good work begun in the 104th in cutting farm subsidies. The telecommunications revolution is allowing jobs to move to where people want to live, unlike in the past when people followed the jobs. An increasing proportion of mobile households choose to live in high amenity-low density settings.