Building Sustainable Communities

With all of our discussions over the course of the semester about sustaining community, I thought the "Mapping the Consequences of our Automobile Addiction" article shows a very sobering picture of automobile fatalities in our country.  It will only get worse as our population continues to grow.  What is the solution?  I think it is a topic worth discussing.  There are certain freedoms that come with owning a car.  In some cases you can get from point A to point B much quicker but there are other situations where the pedestrian or the cyclist is able to travel from point to point faster.  For the past 70 years this country has spent billions on building super-lane interstates all over the place and for those of use that have lived in Mississippi for the past 20 years can see the transformation our road systems have taken. I say again - What is the solution?  I can visualize solutions at a regional scale but at a national scale it is absolutely mind boggling.  With all of the distractions now days with navigational systems, ipods, the decades channels on Sirius - specifically the 80s, and cell phones it's surprising there are not more.  People love all of the technology.  Furthermore, there are crazy drivers, stupid drivers, young drivers, and old drivers that either have no regard for the people around them or they are oblivious.  This is an epidemic that should be addressed.  Do we reverse our actions and reduce the amount of lanes?  Reduce Speed Limits?  Your thoughts?