Highway agencies go through recurring financial crises in a futile effort to sate this demand. Some would have us address this waste by building heavily subsidized rail transit systems. However, even with two-thirds of the cost of transit trips being borne by taxpayers, this mode has continued to lose riders. Continuing to pour more money into these transit systems is the kind of irresponsible misallocation of resources that only government is prone to inflict on society. A second source of difficulty for those who look to government for solutions is that government planning is inherently inept.
Reality is too complex to fit into any plan that government can devise.
Government lacks adequate information on the subjective values of individuals, on the world's continuously changing circumstances, and on what the future might bring. Further, government lacks sufficient incentives to avoid mistakes. The burdens of its errors fall on others. Its failures serve as a rationale for further meddling. Well, since the attainment of both prosperity and a cleaner environment is likely to hinge upon the application of human creativity to perceived problems, an obvious option would appear to be to attempt to encourage more creativity.