Suspending the gas tax is a popular political proposal.

It's recently become an issue in the presidential campaign. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue suspended the tax in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina led to price spikes, and in 2006 the state's Democratic legislators tried to push another gas tax holiday.

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We all agree gas prices are high. People with long commutes, and those who live in places where transit and non-motorized transportation are not options, are being especially hard hit.

It is a real financial hardship for the working poor, and perhaps a gas tax holiday would soften the blow. But this is a case where the cure would only make the patient more ill.

The gas tax is used to pay back bonds for building transportation infrastructure. That means those dollars are already spoken for. Unfortunately, in Georgia, the gas tax is restricted to just roads and bridges. There's no statewide source of dedicated funds to pay for transit and other alternative modes. A couple of weeks ago, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who chairs the House Committee on Transportation, criticized a proposal to suspend the 18.3-cent federal gas tax.

The move would save most drivers less than $30 during the summer season but would cost states billions in lost money for highway construction and safety as well as public transit.

The federal Highway Trust Fund already struggles to meet national transportation needs. Suspending the federal fuel tax would bring the fund to the edge of insolvency, Oberstar said. It also would increase congestion and its related costs.

In Georgia, the Department of Transportation faces a similar budget crisis with a projected shortfall of billions of dollars. Georgia's 7.5 cents-per-gallon gas tax is among the lowest in the nation, and it hasn't increased in decades.

While this might not be what people want to hear, we need to spend more on transportation infrastructure, not less. We need to shift travel habits from cars to other modes whenever possible.

Otherwise, demand for fuel will continue to increase. The greater the demand, the higher the price.

Citizens in metro Atlanta seem to understand that we need to invest in transit to tackle our traffic problems.

The Transit Planning Board, a 19-member group with top elected officials and citizens from our region, has proposed an extensive plan calling for light rail, commuter rail, express buses and other transit modes to help people move around our area.

It released a survey last month showing that 58 percent of residents in the 11-county Atlanta region would support a 1 percent sales tax to fund a specific list of rail, bus and road projects.

More striking was that 85 percent of the respondents agreed with this statement: "Increased investment in public transportation would strengthen metro Atlanta's economy, create jobs, reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and fuel consumption."

Cheryl King, the Transit Planning Board's staff director, said the survey shows people want action.

"I think it's reached the point where people are so frustrated that they are willing to put some money on the table," King said. "We just can't continue to sit here and let the situation get worse."

King also said that there's growing recognition that "we are going to have to cut back on our use and dependence on foreign oil."

Artificially lowering the price will not help us toward that goal. And if we want to reduce congestion, we don't want to lower the cost of gas and encourage people to keep driving to their hearts' content.

As the cost of gas approaches $4 a gallon, habits are beginning to change. People are buying more fuel-efficient cars and cutting down on trips. They are beginning to see other ways to get where they need to go, be it transit, bicycles, walking or car pooling.

"From my viewpoint, I don't have a problem with high gasoline prices because it makes people do what they should have done anyway — that is, to use alternative means of transportation and your good ole two feet," said Steve Vogel, president of the Georgia Association of Rail Passengers.

Vogel also said "people are willing to pay money to get them out of the mess that we're in."

In 1980, Republican-turned-independent presidential candidate John Anderson called for a 50-cent increase in the federal gas tax. He wanted it to fund his energy program, encourage conservation and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

That year, the average price for a gallon of gas was $1.25 (about $2.30 when adjusted for inflation).

I wonder where we would be today had we adopted such a plan. Would we still be as dependent on foreign oil? Would we have been investing in transit and alternative modes of transportation to give people travel choices? Would we have had more success reducing our air pollution?

We'll never know.

But what we do know is that nearly 30 years later, we have done little to reform energy policy or cut our oil dependence.

We have done little to invest in intercity rail, urban transit and greener transportation modes.

And still gas prices keep going up.

It's time to change strategy and invest in our future. It may cost us more now, but it will be well worth it in the long run.