Here's a proposal (fuel tax, transportation, etc)?

How about this?

Instead of suspending the tax on fuel, let's leave it alone or even raise it a bit. Both the federal tax and the state taxes should be used for things like road repair, as it's been so far.

but let's use a portion of it to give grants to local public transportation systems for more buses, trams, expanding service and, importantly, to keep fares down. (Actually, this is already done. What I'm suggesting is a fairly large expansion)

Seems to me that this would result in greater choice; we could drive our cars, certainly. It's expensive, yes, but that's just the way it is. But we also will have the less expensive alternative available.

If this puts an undue hardship on those who, say, live in rural areas, then perhaps we could work out a partial (emphasize partial) rebate of their fuel taxes. Would this mean a bureaucracy? I suppose so. But if it's an honest bureaucracy, then it'll accomplish something good.