Originally Posted by lil brown bat

You can debate rail vs. road vs. bike, but the root of the problem is that we've created a situation where people need to travel a lot farther and more frequently than they used to. Working near where you live is a rarity in the United States these days -- it didn't used to be, because you used to have to walk or take a streetcar or ride a horse or whatever. The commuter train and then the automobile created the opportunity for people to live distant from their daily work, and now, if people suddenly had to bicycle, it would be too far for a lot of people. Likewise, adding public transit doesn't cure the problem of point-to-point travel: people who traveled daily by train used to live a short distance from the train station, and factored in the inconvenience of walking or taking a streetcar to get there. The locations of our homes and our workplaces are what drives the need for a road system that supports automobile traffic. Until a lot of individuals voluntarily start living a lot more locally, that's the way it's going to be.