This is sort of curtesy of PS when he was talking about Marx.
Now imagine a city, a very congested city. Everyone is driving to work. Everyone is unhappy because it takes them an hour or so to get to work, the streets are busy and people are paying a small fortune on petrol and parking. There is also a bus service. Now all the people get together for a meeting and everyone unanimously decides that from the next day everyone should take the bus. All rejoice. With no cars on the road, the bus that had previously also taken 60 minutes from the suburbs to work will take only 30 minutes. However, once home a few people start to think "I could drive tomorrow morning and have the convenience and privacy of the car, and it'll take me only 20 minutes because every else will be on the bus...." Now, that is exactly what happens. The people in the cars are super happy, while those in the bus are not at all. They made the sacrifice and they feel resentment, and start to think 'Why am I slogging it to the bus stop and waiting in the rain and wind, when that schmuck drives like I used to?!" then before you know it we are back to the beginning again and everyone is driving their car to work. No one is happy. So, another meeting is called after another 6 months of traffic jams they all resolve to catch the bus again. This time a resolution is passed that all those that drive a car and not catch the bus will be heavily fined. Soon after people start to resent the bus, then hate the bus. The bus becomes the oppressor so to speak of their symbolic freedom, and the car the vehicle of individual expression and freedom. People become unhappy again...

So while indivudual self-interest leads to collective irrationality can coersion in the name of a greater good leading to the degradation of the value of the individual freedom be justified in this instance? While those that take the bus may feel they are working to help congestion will their efforts simply reduced to tokenism as others see the ineffectuality of their actions and take to their cars, meaning that the time advantage of the bus is rendered meaningless anyway? When this coercion is to happen, who decides what is for the benefit of the happiness of all?

I'm not much of a philosopherizationer, so if this is an easy one take it easy on me...

The issue is paying people when you go on the road and thus make their trip longer. It's not fundamentally different from paying people when you want their stuff. I think it's generally considered less of an impact on freedom then if you could take anything you want, but other people could take it from you.

If you just let everybody do what they want, nobody wants to grow food, and before long, all you can do is decompose.

Some would use a bike and seeing how quick and effective it is to get to work (traffic jam has no effect on bikes), more people would start using a bike until almost everybody did, and the air would be clean and people would be healthy and happy.

DanielC I've thought that for a number of years now. why doesn't the government pay every household that doesn't have a car a nominal amount. It should be serious money, something like 2,000-5,000 dollars/pounds/euros/australians koala dollars etc of course income tested. It would help a lot starving student and free up road space, petrol for that peak, money for road maintenance and construction, increase income generated by public transport, reduce obesity, reduce emissions, motivate councils to inbuild inner suburbs, increase the public transport web, motivate local governments to decentralize. Now the maths would be how much to how many people to balance out all of the savings and benefits without bancrupting the state, or at least not too much of a negative burden financialy to the state. I suppose this answer simply is a case of replacing a stick with a carrot.

Mike, i'm a bike rider myself so I understand that feeling. However, I live in a country that worships the car and worships a spread out city. While the public has such a mental fixation with cars it will be a hard shift to make. At my workplace people frequently ask me if I rode in on a chilly morning with a snigger as though I am some sort of lesser or poorer being. I understand that bike riding isn't for everyone, but mass transit can

They tax gas, which has the same basic effect, except it adjusts for how often the car is driven. They take money from people who use gas instead of giving it to people who don't, but since other taxes are lower this way, it works out the same.