$2 per gallon gas is a surprise.  It will be a surprise if it stays that cheap.  

Almost all of this country's urban and suburban transportation infrastructure is devoted to cars.  Our mythical economic system cares not so much for public health and the well being of the natural world.  It cares about "economic value."  

How can you create a product and add "value" to the ingredients that make up the product.  The economic system cares little about how the product is made, what are the results of its use on people and planet, how to dispose of it. Think junk food, tobacco, oil, suburbia,,,

This economic system does'nt have to be bad.  But it amplifies vanity, greed and self interest.  Costs are externalized - let someone or something else clean up the mess.  Tens of millions of jobs exist to repair the damage caused by tens of millions of other jobs.

Transit is an effort to mitigate cars, sprawl and freeways. It will look like a good idea in coming years, if we last that long.