All over the world people are experiencing air quality changes due to vehicle emissions. Particularly in the peak of summer, cities have worsening air quality to the point where it has become normal to hear air quality warnings. In Pakistan, vehicle emissions are responsible for nearly 90% of their air pollution. That is no wonder when you consider that 500 mature trees are needed to combat the emissions for every 20,000 km driven. There are currently more than 220 million registered automobiles in the U.S. alone and 1/3 of the average American city’s land is devoted to serving the car.
According to the National Transportation Board, congestion will increase by 5.6 billion hours in the period between 1995 and 2015, wasting 7.3 million gallons of fuel unnecessarily. The Highway Users Alliance feels the solution to the congestion problem would be to build more roads. Others feel that providing safe pedestrian and bike paths and improving public transit should be considered. Tollbooths are sometimes used as a powerful persuader for alternative transit and car-pooling. In San Francisco, where vehicles containing three commuters do not have to pay toll fees, people now...