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FHWA's Traffic Volume Trends for March is out. It paints a staggering picture of how American drivers are reacting to gas prices:

Key quote: "Travel on all roads and streets changed by -4.3 percent for March 2008 as compared with March 2007."

Highways & expressway bridges that looked like good investments in 2006 based on ever-increasing demand, now look like bad investments because demand is shrinking. This is all about gasoline prices. The price of gas will be volatile, but in the long term it is still going up, not down. The high price of gas affects the travel choices. Passengers are parking and flocking to transit (source). Freight trucking is being off-loaded to more energy efficient railways (source). Finally, the price of oil heavily affects construction costs. The time to build the new, efficient infrastructure is now, while we still have access to affordable, $4/gallon gasoline.
 

Rational transportation planning in May 2008 looks a lot different than May 2006, because we're seeing the beginnings in a reversal of the miles traveled by gasoline-powered vehicles, and the only alternatives that can move the volumes we need are rail & transit.