Public Transportation and Smart Growth

We have not been investing in these, and many other large, advanced projects, because many right-wingers see them as symbols of strong, and even centralized government. This includes, by the way, most or all of those running for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

It's an ideological thing that runs from moderate conservatives clear on over that cliff the wingers are falling off on the far right: "Small government." "Lower taxes." "Why should I pay my hard-earned money for people who refuse to work to ride on trains?" "Trains are part of the UN Agenda 21 conspiracy to take over our country." "I know people who have seen train cars taking people to FEMA concentration camps."

The Kochs-et-ilk and right-wing media have pushing this knuckledragging paranoia hard for decades now. It's not just Nashville bus system that the Kochs have been trying to quash by a long shot. A lot has been written about this.

BTW, google "American Policy Center" "Agenda 21" "Americans for Prosperty" for links to the Kochs. "Sustainable development" will take the same path -- the Kochs have been systematically battling development of global warming policy for decades by turning conspiracy theorists on it.