I dunno. While I do think we need to improve non-gas options as well, I like this idea. People who are driving less for environmental reasons will do so still, and people who don't care about the envirnmet won't, like, care even less. People who are trying to drive less for economic reasons will still be wanting to spend less. It's not like gas will be cheap; it just won't be quite AS insane. I doubt people would drive more than they would otherwise. But maybe they'd stress a bit less about things they can't control, like sitting in traffic and catching red lights.

That said, an even more awesome way to use the money would be to put the stuff in nationwide that would be necessary to make using enviro-friendly cars more practical, and giving actually useful-sized tax breaks so that normal people can afford to buy them. Actually, tax breaks take too long. The meddler in me says the govt should flat-out pay part of the price for you when you buy it. A good part. A motivating part. An eco-friendly car that you can use comfortably shouldn't have to be a fantasy.