The gas tax and fuel exploration subsidies should be redirected for the future.
Imagine a country where these funded Amtrak (or local train - inclusive of passenger and freight initiatives). Where economic mobility is maximized, and traffic at city interconnections is more limited.
Putting taxes on the things we don’t want encourages use of alternatives. If we want to tackle climate change we should be taxing everything related to CO2 emissions, and using those proceeds to fund far less polluting transportation systems - especially trains which can easily be electrified & run on renewable power – is an important long-term step to reducing the CO2 footprint of things like manufacturing vehicles.
There’s a whole host of subsidies for building/maintaining roads paid for by everyone [1]. There’s the regulatory advantages driving has (ex: the common zoning requirement that new construction ensure enough parking space [2]). There’s the negative externalities of highways/roadways. (Ex: the health impacts of pollution[3], and the health impacts of sitting in a car rather than walking/biking (part of the way) to their destination [4])
[1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/01/23/drivers-cover-just-51... [2] https://www.planning.org/planning/2018/oct/peopleoverparking... [3] https://theicct.org/new-study-quantifies-the-global-health-i... [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8744747/
Subsidizing public transit is a good idea, and benefits those who don't use it.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/near-free-public-transp...