The Berlin Hauptbahnhof: leaving North America at the station

Now that the Hauptbahnhof -- Berlin's massive new central railway station -- has opened -- we North Americans should pause again to consider and lament the failings of our car and truck-based transportation infrastructure. After decades of enslavement to the automobile, it's time we used the tax system to favour more efficient bus and rail technologies to get more single occupant vehicles off the streets.

One place to start would be to actually run the few trains that we do have. I live one city block from a GO transit train station. Unfortunately, that service only runs on weekdays (excluding holidays) and only runs during morning and afternoon rush hour. Rapid transit can work, but only if it is frequent, clean and efficient and treats people with respect by not packing them in like sardines. York Region's new VIVA service comes close to this ideal, but some buses are still over-crowded and scheduling can be thrown off because of road congestion.

Anyhow, congratulations to the Germans for building a big shiny train station. I don't know if North America can solve its transporation issues, but here are a few armchair solutions to ease gridlock and reduce emmissions. Some of these ideas are crazy -- maybe crazy enough to actually work -- though many people won't like them:

• Increase gasoline tax increases to deliberately push the pump price up to at least $5 a litre.
• Introduce additional toll roads for all intercity routes.
• Introduce tolls for driving into the downtown cores of major cities (as London did).
• Use the above revenues to fund busways and support local rapid transit industries.
• Discourage intercity truck traffic with high tolls and licence fees and encourage rail instead.
• Encourage truck drivers to become bus drivers.
• Require that all new and reconstructed roads have bike lanes.
• Require that car makers design cars that take advantage of RFID and/or GPS technology so that cars are "aware" of the speed limit and can not exceed it.
• Raise the driving age to 18 or 19. This will give young people more reason to use other mdoes of transportation and get more cars of the road.

Maybe you have some crazier ideas on this?