I use to teach about this stuff ages ago [urban sprawl, the forced dependence upon the individual automobile, the ultimate dependency on an unsustainable and dangerous resource --- dangerous because so much of it was in unstable and/or unfriendly geography, etc].
Our problems today are completely understandable. The geniuses [no mockery meant by that word --- they WERE geniuses] who designed the "American System", did not foresee the colossal side-effects that their designs would cause. The power of multiplication of population, automobile units, parking spots, oil gallons used, exhaust fumes, et al were inconceivable to these guys. They pursued a big dream and one which seemed to work. The world viewed it as The American Way.
The American Way was an accelerating Giant with a big appetite. As long as it could eat cheap resources, and local ones, it grew and everyone got at least a little rich. Plus, your own car was independence and it was fun. We were encouraged to for at least part of our days to never grow up. Our car became the focus of who we were and the sign of our "worth". It became the untouchable symbol of America.
So everything went on the roads. But as the railroads shrunk, the trucks [which carried the vital support materials --- all manner of food even now] grew in size and numbers and highway-breaking weight. As resources shrunk locally, they had to come more distantly. More trucks; more destroyed highways, more hurting state governments needing taxes. As jobs went elsewhere, whole states began to fail, but the need to repair the vital infrastructure didn't lessen. The country became haves and have nots --- some pleading for funding to the feds harder than others to allow the auto-centric-demanding populations to be supplied by the trucks and the spoiled children to drive their cars to the corner store.
The populations had a history of having it all and wanting it all. They hadn't ever bothered to see a bigger picture nor did they want to. The stupidity of demanding repaired roads and personal vans, hummers, and trucks without being willing to pay for them, refused to enter their minds. As the country's economic world dominance slumped in the competition of the global economy, they refused to believe that they had to sacrifice anything to adjust to that.
This story goes on... it is the story of the wholecloth interwoven American and Global Systems, and how we Americans are the last people on Earth to admit what's going on. Road repairs and Gasoline taxes are the least of it.
A large element of the environmental community has, in fact, given up. We do not any longer believe that there is any solution to the ignorance and selfishness of the majority of the American population and those who tell them happy thoughts to keep the blind dance whirling.
