Let’s face it: Cars are not part of anyone’s civic dream environment, and for all their shiny robotic newness, self-driving cars won’t alleviate “all the environmental issues and land-use intensity issues,” says Nigel Wilson, director of MIT’s Transit Research Program. They probably won’t lessen your commute either, or reduce ugly sprawl, or make you less fat. We all know this. Polls consistently find that most Americans think the country should shell out more for public transit — millennials, in particular, are train aficionados and apparently don’t buy cars. Yet the U.S. spent almost three times as much on highways last year than it did on public transit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.