What's the mental effect of not having to ride in a car, to not fly over the ugly overpasses and avoid sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Does $6.75 for a one-way forty minute ride on the commuter train, with my bike, sound like a better deal than 25 minutes on highways in a car in light traffic or worse? I'll happily pay to look out the train window and catch a glimpse of Walden Pond at dusk, or simply see trees wizz by 15 feet from my window without the pain of billboards, off ramps, and 4 to 10 lanes of asphalt chaos.

If I have to bike a few miles to and from the train station, I'll probably enjoy some of that ride. In winter, I may give myself time to walk on the snowy sidewalk, or I may have to give in to a cab when it's really brutal out and no bus service exists.

What if everyone picked up a backpack and took their car keys off the chain? What if trains were overwhelmed with new permanent riders, people who simply perferred this new simplified lifestyle? We can have this today with one big nudge. Just a few illuminations--that cars are the raskels wasting most of our energy, whether by pushing a ton of steal around or permittimg sprawling developments that allow for big wasteful things. What if we told concerned parents that the reason their kids can't play in front of the house, or walk to school with their friends, is because of those cars that the parents themselves drive. It is their cars that make the streets unsafe, not the passer-through or the neighbor's teenage son. Would they then still feel like driving, or would they consider walking to a train and asking for steetcars?