This shift was anything but sudden—it happened slowly over a generation as people began to acknowledge that smoking was harmful. I remember when planes and restaurants had "no smoking" sections and I remember how strange the first "smoke free" bar I ever walked into seemed. Younger people who didn't live through this evolution are skeptical We assure them that the smoking in Mad Men is not a great exaggeration or just a Manhattan thing and that those instances of "historical smoking" we are warned of before the movies start are accurate reflections of a particular time.

I am beginning to believe that the gradual societal changes that occurred with smoking could happen with driving, especially driving in cities. People who kicked smoking gave up a habit that might have temporarily calmed them, but they gained better overall health, saved money and smelt better. Driving has been made very convenient and, for many people today, it is as much the default as lighting up once was. Just as the evidence that smoking was detrimental eventually became impossible to dismiss, we are approaching the point now where the negative effects of auto-centric lifestyles are becoming harder to ignore.

Certainly at the height of smoking an outright prohibition on smoking would have met resistance and any democratically elected officials who proposed it would likely soon find themselves out of power. That's probably still true. However, while there was opposition to high cigarette taxes and to limits of where smoking was allowed, people did not revolt. In many cases, the taxes collected were dedicated to educating youth about the dangers of smoking and to offset the collective costs of diminished public health due to smoking.

Similarly, it would be outlandish to ban private vehicles, but some governments are making moves to put more of the real costs of driving—of building and maintaining road systems and parking—onto the drivers themselves. Proposals include congestion pricing, parking fees, more toll roads, increases to gas taxes and licensing fees. It's going to take some real work to make these fee structures and taxing schemes truly fair, including reevaluating the zoning policies that make housing closer to jobs and services out of reach for people with lower incomes and transportation policies that make walking, biking and transit less viable options. But, just as the money from cigarette sales was meant to discourage widespread smoking in the next generation, money collected from drivers can be used to build communities that are more accessible to people who choose to drive less or not at all.



When I speak of all that can be gained by having a more walkable and bikeable small city, people around me are quick to say, "That can never happen here. Everybody drives". They give specific examples. They love where they live and they love where they work. They have no plans to change either of those things, and the only way to get from where they live to where they work is to drive.