I was involved with a transportation planning quango in the mid 90s. The unspoken subtext of everything they did was the elimination of the car by legal, political or other means.
Of course this resulted in dozens of pie-in-the-sky proposals (light rail etc.) and a 10-12 year delay in correcting longstanding problems such as the number of lanes, interchanges, etc. One joker took it upon himself to canoe up a polluted stream (read: open sewer) every year to ‘raise awareness.’ Judging from the look of his clothing, desk, and personal grooming it was probably difficult for him to notice the pollution in the first place. Hippies smell!
Effectively these groups take 10-15% of tax revenue and waste it - all the while congratulating themselves.
You are spot on! This is all part of the leftist attack on individual freedoms. They want you on the collective mass transit so they can keep an eye on you. Individual cars give individuals power and that doesn't work in the collective culture.
Same with carbon tax and cap & trade. The idea is.... everyone gets to emit x tons of carbon per year. If you want to emit more (like owning a snowmobile, ATV, pleasure boat, motorcycle, power lawn mower, etc.) you will have to buy carbon offset credits. Like ration coupons. Someone (like a 90 year old granny) will sell her credits in the market and you will buy credits to be able to use your power toys. The price of these credits is the carbon tax everyone is howling about.
Its all part of the plan to enslave the individual and make us subservient to the state. Peasants don;t need power toys. They need to work at their government jobs for government scrip. But, the elite! Now, they get the toys, the limos, the dachas, etc. because they are important. They serve the state at a very high level and to encourage them to serve, they must be properly cared for.
I’m all for light rail...as long as we can use it to run Governor 39% Perry out of Texas!