I heard a discussion on NPR with Ron Sims, the elected head of King County (which includes Seattle, Washington). He was being questioned about transportation options, particularly plane to re-do some major roads like the bridges between Seattle and the Bellevue and the Alaskan Way viaduct. In all cases, he pushed hard for building public and alternative transport - new lanes for high occupancy transport, particularly buses, and bike lanes. The justification that he used was universally global warming. He meant it - a local politician with a big budget demanding that we do the right thing on transportation.
The talk was cut off to allow for a traffic report, which was fairly dismal.
I was listening on my way to a meeting, where everybody drove separately (we all came from very different places), and the traffic was a major source of conversation.
This is going to be a tough one. Ron Sims is insisting that little new money go into roads for single occupancy vehicles, and he's right. We're going to have to figure out how to be personally creative in a region that has little truly excellent public transportation.