***Why have we ignored the huge problems that come with using cars as transportation?***?

Cars need to be cleaner and more green.It needs a fundamental rethink, but politicians will not do this, fearing the 'backlash' from republicans bleating on about 'freedoms' and 'right' to drive gas guzzlers.

Blame the politicians vested interests that allow car makers to produce gas guzzling cars and the oil industry.

If US motorists paid the fuel prices that we have in the UK (£1.32 a litre for unleaded, about US$2 a litre!) and paid the annual road tax levied on cars (up to US$750 a year for those that produce the most carbon dioxide), they might realise they are lucky. Cars and fuel have always been heavily taxed in the UK to encourage small cars and public transport usage.This is what they need to do in the US.

You do wonder about smokers too. They choose to breathe in carbon monoxide (willingly!), with every puff.As well as arsenic too. Lovely.

I am seriously a big fan of trolleys and zeppelins. I am not being funny. I would love trolleys but they are very expensive and people do not use public transportation. In the old days people went everywhere on the trolley. But the good news, I hear zeppelins are coming back. Some company has redesigned them for modern flight and that would be great. Cars can't last forever and not because of silly things like lack of fuel but there is no way to accommodate many more. People say make more roads but you can have an infinite number of roads and still if it goes to one point the traffic will be enormous. Parking is also a consideration. As land prices rise parking buildings will have to charge 100's an hour for payback. It's only a matter of time. Riding horses? You've got to be kidding, I can just imagine what 150 million horses would be like.

We've been able to afford comfort and convenience over efficiency, and now most Americans can't imagine a life without their cars.

It's a real problem, because cargo and passengers only constitute a few percent of the weight that must be moved by the car's engine. The easy energy of petroleum has allowed that, but when you look at alternative fuels it's clear that we need to move far less weight, and likely more slowly, to make alternative fuels work.

Cars today have catalytic converters that change all the CO into CO2, so you wouldn't be poisoned by CO in the garage. CO2 can asphyxiate you also, however. BTW, the way CO kills is it has greater affinity to hemoglobin than molecular oxygen does, and keeps oxygen from being transported by the bloodstream. It doesn't deplete the oxygen in the air.

The car is an incredibly wasteful and inefficient device, but Americans love them more than life itself because they're comfortable and convenient. We'll invest far more resources into keeping them running than we should.

DK

Because people feel that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Certainly they are also helped in that opinion by petrochemical and car companies who want to sell products.

To many the car is the great and powerful OZ... please don't look behind the curtain. But we could go deeper still and wonder why we have let our population grow to 7 trillion souls with no end in sight. To support that population we can name problem after ill to what may seem to be a staggering total of unsustainable activity.

Balanced against this assault on our world and way of life is the chance to find more inventive souls, more remarkable people with amazing ideas to lead humanity to a better place.

If we had been sensible about transportation, we would've had PRT transit where small automated vehicles traveled on dedicated guideways and when one passenger no longer needed a vehicle, it would proceed to another passenger. However this would've sold very few cars. We have the private automobile because the concept sells a lot of cars, cars that spend most of their time parked. The growth of our economy has been largely due to the automobile. We have cars to have jobs. We have cars for transportation because it's not about transportation, it's about economic growth, profit and jobs.

Stratty, don't worry about the carbon monoxide going into the air. Carbon monoxide is not a stable molecule and as soon as it comes in contact with a free oxygen atom it bonds to it and becomes carbon dioxide. You are exhaling carbon dioxide right now. You have breathed carbon dioxide every moment of every day of your life, it's not toxic.

Surprisingly carbon monoxide isn't really toxic either, but in an enclosed area it will suffocate you because it grabs all the free oxygen out of the enclosed area. But outside, with 21% of the atmosphere being oxygen, it's no threat.

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Let's get rid of aircraft, railroads and boats/ships while we're at it.

I can just picture high school and college students jumping on a horse in Kansas City and heading down to Florida for Spring Break!

We as human beings, ignore all problems that come with using sources that hurt our environment, and our safety in general. If it makes out lives easier, we are using it at no mater what cost.

Live close to your work location and walk to office. Carry your own grocery. It is not all that difficult to live without ar.