Carrot and Stick (without the carrot)

This is a green issue, I suppose (and does have a vegetable in the title).

The current UK government (and all the ones before, and most likely all the future ones), claim they would very much like us motorists - along with all other roadusers - to create fewer exhaust fumes and so reduce pollution, most likely so they can boast of their 'green' credentials among their EU peers, rather than a real wish to reduce greenhouse gases.

The latest among a whole range of suggestions (read 'threats') was for country-wide road pricing, along with 'big brother' monitoring. I seem to recall that one of the experts who put forward this proposal on behalf of the government claims he was misrepresented (or has since changed his mind, I can't remember exactly), and that he only meant for busy routes to be chargeable. Whichever of the two is correct, this is still a 'stick' to beat the driver with.

A majority of private motorists would probably accept such charges, on condition that the funds accrued from such charges were applied directly to the replacement public transport system that we would all be using instead of our cars. This would be the 'carrot'.

But no UK government seems capable of producing a unified public transport policy, much less actually implementing one!

How is it that many european countries seem able to do so, but not us?

I used the system (trams, trolley buses and buses) in Zürich over a couple of years (admittedly this was a number of years ago), and it worked fine. Towns in southern France are waking up and installing tram systems, to try to reduce traffic within the city centres. Marseilles, Nice and (I think) Bordeaux are well advanced in such projects. Yes, Sheffield and Croydon have done something similar, and these seem to be working well in reducing centre traffic. We would probably be reasonably happy to give up our private cars to travel in well-appointed and dependable mass-transit systems, particularly in the rush hours.

We are encouraged (or threatened with having) to travel by train rather than drive. On long-distance stuff, like London-Edinburgh, I would have no problem with it in terms of reduced stress; then you find that you may have to stand all the way (how is that for reducing stress) despite having had to get a second mortgage to afford the ticket. If there are two of you, it is far cheaper to drive London-Edinburgh than take the train. So that 'carrot' almost becomes a 'stick'. Admittedly, the rail system is no longer government-run, but they should include it in their planning - I wonder if they do?

Are there any real carrots on offer to us poor drivers? Or are we simply to be beaten with the stick until we give up totally?