Traffic costs Americans about $1.7 trillion per year. :
- $425 billion per year for oil.
- $871 billion per year in accidents, alternate data source.
- 40,100 road-deaths in 2017.
- 2.31 million injuries in 2013.
- $305 billion per year in congestion.
- $109 billion per year in car damage from poor road maintenance.
In 1982 courts ended a century of rotary telephones mandated by the Federal communication monopoly created by President Wilson's Executive Order on Aug 1, 1918. Restoring liberty to innovate triggered commercialization of long domant technologies of the Internet.
A similar Federal highway monopoly has mandated the 25 mpg efficiency of the Model-T since by The Federal-Aid Highway of 1916 . Using the 5X5 Standar of the Solar Mobility Act/Ordinance to restoring liberty to innovate in transportation will convert at least half of the $1.7 trillion/year traffic costs into jobs, customer savings, and profits. The Physical Internet® in energy and transportation will be as significant as the Internet in communications.
Two aspects of liberty intertwine to create innovation and the "general welfare":
- Tolerance of disruptive minorities offering choices. There are few minorities as tiny and disruptive as inventors.
- Tolerance of people sorting those choices in free speech and free markets, the Wisdom of the Many. The aggregated wisdom of all of us, with each acting in their own self-interest is wiser than the wisest of us a choosing between choices.