So a few years ago the EPA started leaning on the state of GA to improve its air quality standards. How does it go about doing this? As fish are made to swim and fowl are made to fly, so Georgia politicians are made to blame the victim: mandatory emissions inspections for all cars. To see the gist of this, consider which car is more likely to pass an emissions test: a 98 Lexus, or a 79 Lincoln.
I think that we can demonize "The Car" all we please, but in the US anyway we cannot divorce our perceptions of automotive travel (pollution, gridlock, highway deaths, etc etc) from the social conditions that make driving what it is for most people most of the time. Cars are marvelous things (even Ralph Nader has said as much), particularly for working class people, but the tyranny of the car that many people feel is not completely illusory. However, the 'tyranny' is not really that of some popular consumer product, but rather that of a fragmented, racist, classist society. The danger is that in addressing the problem of "The Car", we will simply reinforce the social conditions that make the situation objectionable in the first place. This is the direction that Metro Atlanta is headed now -- gentrification of the highways.
-d