We need to lock cars out of downtown areas and upgrade public transit to be a viable option. Having traveled in Europe, where one can get pretty much anywhere using trains and buses, the situation here is horrible.
My wife and I went into Philly on New Year's Day for the Mummer's Parade. Being younger and open to alternative transportation, we said "hey, why drive when we can take the train?". So we first looked at Amtrak. The Lancaster station is about 2 miles from our house and it would take us directly into center city. It was a bit expensive at $60 roundtrip, but the convenience would be worth it. Unfortunately, after checking the schedule, we could get home on the 6:45 train or the 9:45 train. The Mummer's show that evening ended at 8, so we'd be stuck with nothing to do on a cold night for almost 2 hours, or missing half the show in order to catch the earlier train.
Okay, so Amtrak was out. What about driving to a commuter train? Okay, let's see...we can drive an hour and then pay $20 round trip to take an hour SEPTA ride into the city. Trains leave every hour, so we won't be hanging around too long waiting to come home.
That's what we ended up doing, and I'm really not sure it was better than just driving in. It cost about the same, it took a bit over two hours instead of 90 minutes, and still ended up forcing us to leave the show early to catch the train.
Until public transit becomes a better option than driving, cars will rule the roads.