Declining public transportation options increase our dependence on private vehicles and the demand for more highway infrastructure.

It’s ironic that in the jet age, when we talk constantly about how small the world is becoming, that it’s actually getting harder for many Americans to get from one place to another.

People in Lawrence seem likely to lose yet another transportation option in the near future. President Bush’s budget for 2006 eliminates funding for the Amtrak rail service, a move that would put the heavily subsidized service into bankruptcy. Even if some compromise is found to preserve some Amtrak funding, that money is likely to be directed to commuter rail service in the northeast corridor. Routes with lower usage, like the one that goes through Lawrence just after midnight heading west and early in the morning heading east probably wouldn’t survive.

Kansas also has experienced many cutbacks in commercial bus service. Without bus or train service, the only option left is private vehicles.

So what about someone like the man quoted in Wednesday’s Journal-World, who regularly rides the train to Independence, Mo.? Or the many students, low-income residents or senior citizens who either don’t own cars or are physically unable to drive from town to town? How do they get where they want or need to go?

It seems that at a time when Americans should be — and many are — concerned with our dependence on foreign oil, that the nation would be trying to reduce its dependence on private vehicles. Yet, rather than invest in, or even preserve, what public transportation remains in the United States, we are making it impossible for people to get from Point A to Point B anyway except in a private vehicle.

Part of the problem with various bus and Amtrak routes is that they don’t have enough ridership. What if the government made the use of public transportation more attractive by raising taxes on motor fuel and using the money to subsidize bus and train service? Some Americans might think it was an extreme approach, but without some serious strategy, most of the country will continue to become more and more dependent on private vehicles.

Not only will that perpetuate our dependence on foreign oil and force more investment in highway infrastructure, it will severely limit the mobility of people who don’t have access to private vehicles.

There actually has been interest in this area in developing a rail line to serve the Topeka-Lawrence-Kansas City corridor. The service might be able to use existing tracks and relieve some of the congestion on Interstate 70, Kansas Highway 10 and other major routes between the cities.

The federal government may well decide that Amtrak isn’t worth saving. If that’s the case, then lawmakers need to take a look at the nation’s long-term transportation strategy and consider how to provide transportation links not only between major metropolitan areas, which can be largely handled by air transportation, but how to get someone 50 miles down the road to see a doctor or visit a relative.