Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May 2008 than in May 2007, a 3.7 percent drop. Good for Amtrak? Perhaps not...

Newsweek story about the rising demand for mass transit and declining revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by gas taxes. The article mentions funds for  highway work may be pulled from the money allocated to Amtrak. The author, Daniel Gross, notes this is odd as the automobile is supported by a government subsidy that dwarfs anything provided to mass transit. He estimates the subsidy at nearly $100 billion per year. Pulling funds from public transit would seem like odd policy to me.