Obama moves on oil - The end of private cars?

PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s move to confront America’s hugely powerful if ailing motor industry is welcome even if it is belated.

President Obama wants America’s drivers to go farther on a gallon of petrol and cause less damage to the environment – and pay the cost of the damage they cause. Of course this will have to be balanced with the great surge in car ownership in India and China.

It may be time to begin to consider how we might live our lives without private cars as all the energy and environmental indicators suggest that we may have to.