“Build the damn train”: In conversation with

But I think the thing that has always been missing is that federal commitment. Now that’s sort of an easy thing to say, and I mean I don’t think it’s controversial. I don’t think anyone would disagree that it would be helpful to getting a national network up and running. But one of the things that I thought was interesting in doing some of the research is that when you look at other new networks that have been developed, and this is the canal system, the railroad system, the highway system, it didn’t start with the federal government building them and paying for them. It started with either states paying for them or private actors or a combination of the two. And then as those networks developed, the federal government got involved after it was demonstrated that this was a viable thing in all those cases.