Some thoughts to ponder:

Pollution:

• Nearly 30,000 people are killed annually from car emissions
• Motor vehicles cause most of the ozone pollution
• Motor vehicles account for as much as 20 times more nitrogen oxide emissions than power plants
• SUVs emit 43% more global warming pollutants and 47% more air pollution than the average car
  

Oil:

• The average person consumes 273 gallons of fuel driving to and from work for one year.
• If every commuter car in the U.S. carried one more person, we would save 8,000,000,000 gallons of gas a year (yes, that is 8 billion gallons)
• 3 billion gallons of gas are wasted every year in traffic congestion
• Making the fuel-economy standards of light trucks and SUVs to the same as cars would save 1 million barrels of oil a day
• The U.S. uses half of the world's gasoline

On the road:

• A single track of light rail can move as many passengers in one hour as a four lane highway.
• An 18-wheeler that is fully loaded does as much damage to the road as almost 10,000 cars.
• Only 11% of shipments are made by train while nearly 60% are made by truck.
• One railroad car can carry as much as 4 trucks

Links for more information:

General information:

Economy of motorized traffic and the automotive industry is good for our economy?
When Will the Joy Ride End? just how much oil is there?
Missing the train a good little editorial on alternative transportation
Environmental Impact of the Automobile *pdf file, must have acrobat to read
A want my MPG a little flash movie, so you must have flash installed to watch it.

 

 

Alternative Transportation Organizations:

Coalition for Appropriate Transportation
Bicycle Civil Liberties Union
Auto-Free Ottawa
Self-Propelled City 

Mass Transportation:

Light Rail Central:  The North American Light Rail Information Site
Routes International