>I have seen the smog over LA, Denver, Phoenix, Boston, et al. I have also seen the smog over London - no contest there Terry!

Tracy. Do you mean London's the worst or we can't compete with the US cities?

You may be aware that for the past year or 2 there's been a £5 "congestion charge" for any motorists entering the city proper, to discourage traffic fumes in the City (London). The old London smog, so beloved of Girshwin songs, and so portrayed in countless Hollywood and Brit films (esp Jack the Ripper or Sherlock Holmes) etc., the original "pea-souper", was a product of so many homes burning coal, coal-fired elec. gen., and the proximity to the Thames, and is as much a myth now as our bobbies running around in it blowing whistles.

OTOH I wouldn't want to live there - esp. in summer :-)

>I must admit though that the smog situation in our largest cities is ridiculous and something MUST be done. I have read articles though that say that the actual worst air quality is in the beautiful North Carolina mountains due to the paper mills and not in our largest cities.

Where I live, on the S coast, 7 mins walk from the beach, you'd think we were blessed with "bracing sea air". Well that is the impression but apparently there's still a high instance of asthma, dur to chemical pollutants crossing the Channel from France.

Metin has a point about our all sharing the same air: considering pollutants to be far away is like feeling safe in the swimming pool because the peeing are is at the other end. :-)

>Hard to believe that in the area I live now (and just left as a matter of fact as well) there still is no good mass transit system to give a viable alternative to driving to/from work...

LA's lack of public transport was lampooned in "... Roger Rabbit", in the days when there was a burgeoning trolley-bus (street car?) system, and Bob Hoskins commented that LA had the best public xport system in the world. All that was sacrificed for the car in a typical 50s/60s lamentable lack of foresight into the sheer numbers in the future.