How do I respond to discussion below?

In this week's reading and research, transportation is crucial to the economy in various ways. Transportation is a means of delivering products, cargo, and individuals from one location to another which "accounts for" a huge stake of "U.S. economic activity" (Winston, 1999, pg. 37). There are 15 significances on why transportation is important to the economy which are as follows: it eases trade "for the economy, increases productivity, promote economic exchange, connects people and cultures, reduces costs, enables economic growth, gives us the ability to reflect and reevaluate, increases market reach, helps combat poverty, promotes investment, it enhances the gross domestic product (GDP), boosts economic efficiency, enhances quality of life, reduces cost of living, improves accessibility, and it increases global trade" (Ali, 2023, No. 1-15).

While understanding and knowing the importance of how transportation affects us daily, there are trends that have and continue to impact the future of transportation. In the late 1990's, United States citizens expended approximately "$600 billion" traveling to their place of employment, leisure, and purchasing and managing cars (Winston, 1999, pg. 36). Not to mention businesses across the United States "spent more than $500 billion shipping" goods to "distribution centers and retail outlets" (Winston, 1999, pg. 37). "Local, state, and federal government spending on transportation infrastructure and services" raised the overall cost to "$1.3 trillion or roughly 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)" (Winston, 1999, pg. 37). Fast forward to 2021, "bi-partisan" legislatures passed the "$1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022" with an intense attention on "incentives for" substitutes to "carbon fuel-powered" vehicles and impartiality for areas adversely affected by transit infrastructure" (Salo, 2023, para. 1).

At the beginning of 2023, some "Americans" qualified "for a tax credit up to $7,500 for buying an EV" with the "200,000-vehicle cap" being diminished (Salo, 2023, para. 3). Transportation is the leading "cause of greenhouse gas emissions" that "generates around 28 percent" within the U.S. alone (Marr, 2022, No. 1). Given the stringent worldwide "emissions targets, greater urban populations, improvements in charging infrastructure, and the declining cost of the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs (alreadydown to 80 percentsince 2010) will combine to encourage mass adoption of EVs" (Marr, 2022, No. 1, para. 2). Second, autonomous vehicles (i.e. driverless taxis) offer an amazing chance to transform the "way people and goods" are delivered thus enhancing "road safety and ease congestion on busy roads" (Marr, 2022, No. 2). In freight, multiple businesses are "working to develop autonomous trucks" like "TuSimple" who is collaborating with "UPS to" run "test operations in Arizona and Texas" Marr, 2022, No. 2, para. 6). Third, the "IIJA dedicated $65 billon for improving the country's broadband capabilities" which would expand the capacity of "autonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) upgrades" to link every vehicle, applications, and people to one another (Salo, 2022, para. 9-10). Soon, the focus will turn to "mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) providers to meet our transportation needs" by offering an array of transportation modes through a "single payment channel and interface" (Marr, 2022, No. 3, para. 2). In essence, the goal is to have such an array of transportation modes with the added convenience that one would not need to own a vehicle.