Spending the money from the subway fare on highways would compound the inequities already existing in the city’s transportation setup. It was neither fair nor just.

Singapore’s prosperity could have turned it into another bumper-to-bumper Bangkok, whose congestion—gridlocking the average driver the equivalent of forty-four full days a year—is estimated to reduce Thailand’s entire GDP by about one-sixth. Yet Singapore is rarely congested, because it taxes cars heavily, auctions the right to buy them, imposes a