Real solutions are going to take long range planning, and long range planning is something we're not very good at because the world changes faster than we can. Henry Ford may have caused our current problems, but he can't be blamed for them. He had no way of knowing how things would turn out.

What is really criminal is how we deliberately dismantled working mass transit systems in order to encourage automobile and fuel sales, and how the automobile allowed people to buy cheap property a long way from where they worked. As long as fuel was cheap, it was wonderful, but now it's not going to be easy to go back to cities based on horse and buggy requirements. What we need to develop is a cheap commuter vehicle with very good mileage, small and light and with very little cargo capacity (90% of the time we are in our cars alone, without luggage and stuck in traffic): something with a top speed of about 60MPH and maybe a small motorcycle engine for power, and just enough coachwork to keep the weather out. I'm deliberately avoiding new technology here because we need to have something that will work now, yet not become totally obsolete if a new technology like fuel cells becomes fully practical. No need to ban the SUV, just get them out of the commute.

The society would gradually wean itself off the large car, but it wouldn't be forced to do it overnight. Eventually, houses in the city would become more desireable and industries would start moving back to more central locations, it would be a gradual process. This is probably what would eventually happen anyway, even if we did nothing, but if the fuel just stops flowing altogether, there won't be much of an opportunity for a gradual change.