I used to live in South Africa, where the apartheid government used roads and other infrastructure to separate people of different racial groups. In fact, when planning neighborhoods for black people, authorities often ensured there were only one or two entrances and exits, so that police could easily restrict locals.

There are probably more examples of this in the U.S. than many of us are aware of, but as a general phenomenon, it's not a thing. The case that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg -- fresh from parental leave, you baby-haters -- made on Monday was that there's a kind of systemic racism in insfrastructure.

All of Pete's examples referred to Robert Moses, the guy who planned much of New York City in the 20th century. He was a liberal Republican, meaning that he opposed the Democrat machine but not its big-government philosophy. He allegedly divided communities with roads and underpasses too low for buses.

I tweeted about Buttigieg's likely source -- Robert Caro's 1974 biography of Moses -- which includes Moses's denial of racism and portrays him as a general jerk and megalomaniac rather than a racist. I highly doubt Moses, a Jew in a liberal city, thought his mission was to reinforce white supremacy. But maybe.

Anyway, these examples are pretty weak, and ignore the dynamic possibility that neighborhoods become segregated because of bad planning with good intentions. The government builds a road; the road is bad; the rich people leave; the poor remain. And here comes the government again to "fix" the problem.

Buttigieg is a smart guy. But he was not a great mayor; he himself was accused of racism, and his streets were full of potholes. He took his precious family leave, unannounced, in the middle of a crisis. His plans will fail because they try, like him, all things to all people. That's not how you build a bridge, racist or not.