<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <pre wrap="">This is all just a classic case of the '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons">tragedy of the commons</a>': free and easy access to a finite resource (road space in this case) may help individuals and goods to move about far more easily than in the past, but when everyone does it there is no space left for anyone. What is good for one is disastrous when everyone does it (to say nothing of the environmental impacts of relying on carbon-based sources of energy)! As this debate has pointed out, there is no simple way of avoiding this tragedy. Public transport, even if it is free, will not be a viable alternative if it does not efficiently serve people's needs. Proper pricing of alternatives can better address equity issues, but this is a difficult tool to manage - most places opt for simpler methods (ban cheap cars, apply a fixed charge, etc) which are quite "blunt" instruments. As urban regions rapidly expand in all directions, it becomes more and more difficult to serve such large areas with mass-transit systems. Integrated development of transportation and land uses can certainly help, but this is beyond the capabilities of many governments. Land use and travel patterns have evolved rapidly in the 20th century, to a large extent as a result of changes in transportation technologies. We are probably approaching the end of the cheap-fuel era (the "end of suburbia"), so we will need to seriously rethink how we will be living and moving about in the future.... Regards, ZVi </pre> </body> </html>