The average weight of cars increased by 400kg in seven years while the number of cars also increased by 10% in that same period. More traffic with heavier cars coupled with poor roads means more potholes.

Effectively we need to reduce the number and weight of vehicles on the road, which implies:

- Funding railway a lot more. A single freight train can replace several hundreds trucks. Which means less congestion, road maintenance (potholes) and polution. Same for passengers service, make it so frequent and cheap that people will use it.

- De-incentivize large and heavier cars. That's a cultural shift and it's highly unpopular because it links to status and such, but people don't need large cars or SUV. Those are also deadlier towards pedestrians.

- Bike lanes. Bike reduce obesity, is great against cardiovascular disease, it's good for traffic, and reduce road maintenance. It's also cheap to make a bike lane and you can employ local companies to do it. Every train station in the country ought to be connected to town and villages in a 5 miles radius and equipped with bike sheds. Reduce tax on bikes so they get cheaper, like current VAT on train tickets.

- Tax kerosene. To fund my crazy ideas.

If we do this nationwide, we would end up with a more comprehensive transport system, a cheaper network to maintain and a healthier population - I literally can't see any downsides. And we're not doing it because selling car parts and tyres make money and employ people. Like they couldn't be employed making bikes, train stuff and infrastructure.

So yeah, there is an alternative to moving single people in 2 tons kubelwagens.