he left in America has always hated the automobile, while having a love affair with public transit. This isn't surprising: The auto has been one of the most liberating inventions in human history--allowing people to go where they want, when they want. Much better to have people on government buses and trains so we can keep track of them..

Anyway, expect a huge push for more urban-transit spending, paid for with federal tax dollars, later this year. A group called the American Public Transit Association (APTA), which represents the workers and contractors who gobble up all the money, has been on a public-relations roll of late. In the last two weeks both USA Today and Washington Post have printed front-page stories gushing about the recent increase to some 9 billion passengers a year using public buses and rail systems to get to work. Meanwhile, Tom DeLay is being assailed in Houston for holding up congressional funding for a new light-rail system there..

For 30 years, American taxpayers have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to public transit. "Build it and they will come," has been the operating principle of the transit enthusiasts. In truth, you'd be awfully hard-pressed to find a more expensive failure in Washington than the federal program for subway and light-rail systems. Since 1965, the federal government has spent roughly $60 billion on urban-transit systems. Yet despite this torrent of spending, fewer Americans use urban transit today than 35 years ago. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that more Americans walk to work than ride failed inner-city transit systems. It would make more sense for Congress to be subsidizing Nike tennis shoes than light rail systems, such as the one proposed in Houston..

Transportation expert Wendell Cox has found that the percentage of people using public transit actually declined in the cities that have built major rail systems over the past 20 years. Light rail is predicated on 1950s and 1960s commuter patterns — when Americans used to commute into inner cities to go to work. Nowadays we live in "Edge Cities" where we are more likely to travel around the inner city, rather into it..

One of the great government scandals of the past decade has been the reluctance of urban planners and state governments to build more roads. Instead, we sit in traffic jams (which means lost productivity and major aggravation) while gas-tax money goes to building transit systems that nobody rides. Cox has shown that transit does not even save energy or help the environment, because ridership is so minuscule. Three of the biggest white elephants of the past decade have been the Miami Metrorail (or "Metro-Fail" as it is now called), the Detroit People Mover (nobody works in Detroit anymore), and the L.A. subway (good luck getting Californians out of their cars!)..

In 1986, then Democratic Senator William Proxmire awarded his famous "Golden Fleece" award to the Urban Transit Administration. Proxmire correctly noted that transit subsidies were "a spectacular flop" and that it was time for Congress to "stop playing Santa Claus to America's cities." What's so discouraging is that 15 years later too many Republicans — Tom DeLay notwithstanding — still want Washington to play Santa Claus — with a bigger bag of goodies than ever before..