Four proposals that are being made in order to remediate mobility problems are dealt with: the idea to change settlement patterns in order to increase urban density, road-pricing, internalising external effects of mobility into prices, and teleworking. The author holds the nowadays often stated `ideal' of the `compact city' for infeasible and, in view of phenomena such as town cramming, for inappropriate and undesirable. He also objects to road-pricing on the ground that it would presumably by only dimly effective, especially as long as no realistic alternatives comes into being. Proponents of road-pricing fail to consider potential harmful changes in spatial patterns due to the introduction of road-pricing, while they also often remain blind to the harmful social consequences of it. For what concerns internalising external costs, there actually exists no adequate methodology for this, and even if a methodology would come into existence, the calculations in themselves would not be able to settle political debates or to unify different worldviews. For what concerns telework, the author things this approach is fruitful and promising, on the conditions that much attention would be given to the `orgwave'-side of information technologies. (A)
Abstract