Should the government invest in the development of smart transportation infrastructure?

For traffic lights and stop signs yes. For vehicles no.

No, while smarter traffic signalling may be a worthwhile investment, I am vehemently opposed to any sort of "smart" vehicles, as they are typically anti-consumer in terms of right-to-repair, as well as an inherent privacy, safety, and security risk to the individual, those around them, and to national security.

"Connected" vehicles of any sort open up the possibility of severe privacy violations by the United States government, as well as malicious individuals and foreign nation states; your car should not be able to transmit data about your location.

Similarly, vehicles wit…  Read moreh steer-by-wire or electronic throttle controls are inherently dangerous. I am not aware of any automotive manufacturer that controls its own software-hardware supply chain enough to provide formal verification throughout the stack to offer the same levels of guarantees about correctness that a mechanical system provides. In addition, even with formal verification techniques, a provably correct system only helps when it is not tampered with. And currently, auditability of integrated circuits/hardware is an unsolved problem that does not appear to be realistically solveable.

Only in areas that are in need, such as congested cities, and areas where traffic volume is high.

No; it should be eco-centric and people-centric transportation infrastructure

...what do you mean by smart? Literally every bloody transport system is already smart, and the UIs for tickets never work!