No, California High-Speed Rail Money Shouldn't Go to Roads

For the increasingly desperate opponents of California’s high-speed rail project, one bad argument deserves another. Earlier this month, it was House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy who suggested that bullet train money be diverted toward dams and drought relief. Now, State Senator Patricia Bates has upped that false choice with a falser one, arguing in the San Diego Union-Tribune that the rail money should go toward the state’s crumbling roads:

It’s common for high-speed rail skeptics to see roads and rails as a zero-sum game in which one mode must perish for the other to survive. In truth, California needs both transportation options if it stands any hope of improving life for residents who endure awful air pollution and even worse traffic on a daily basis. By perpetuating car reliance, Bates isn’t solving a problem but rather putting it off for another representative to handle in the future.