Mitigating the risk of climate change by reducing travel by light duty vehicles
From a greenhouse gas point of view, there are numerous chances for implementing measures that both reduce VKT and CO2e emissions, while yielding net increases in consumer utility. These interventions will need to be massively scaled-up, particularly in the cities of the rapidly urbanizing parts
of the world, like China and India, before their urban transportation systems are locked into the sort of
auto-dominated urban forms that have driven up transport sector CO2e emissions in most OECD countries. Vehicles and fuels are manufactured by a relatively limited number of large multinational firms that are sensitive to regulatory pressure to clean-up their fuels and improve the efficiency of their engines.
As private firms, they are already partially responsive to fuel prices and consumer pressure, and their engines and fuels are reasonably well optimized for their customers