First, the title is really grasping at straws; the article doesn't talk about any 'recovery' for the region outside of metro ridership, nor does it demonstrate

First, the title is really grasping at straws; the article doesn't talk about any 'recovery' for the region outside of metro ridership, nor does it demonstrate the necessity of such. The incentives are all there for people to favor cars until highway congestion gets particularly serious. When drivers don't have to pay for driving, it takes other incentives to push them toward alternatives. When the wealthy commuters of the DC area are being given huge rebates for their electric cars, that's another incentive that transits have to claw back against. Then you look at the DC metro, which runs infrequently to a limited set of places and is frequently on fire or out of service for other reasons, and it's not hard to understand why suburban commuters use cars. Furthermore, outside the city the metro stops are largely commuter stops, which means people drive to big parking lots and then have to get into a train. If a working metro were a priority, new lane-mile construction would cease and highways would be tolled much more commonly.