What do we do?

[Lilith7]

You are right that the human animal seems to have a predisposition to mind-altering substances, but by now we should have enough awareness and are supposedly intelligent enough to realise the damage it causes and not do it. If only because of the direct expense.

The problem with making motoring more expensive is that it disadvantages those who need to drive and becomes an unfair burden on those who can least afford it. I fully agree that public transport should be better (and should be free!) but it will always be inefficient and can never be everything to everyone.

Taking responsibility for one's actions, particularly when there is a delayed correlation, is increasingly at odds with our instant gratification seeking lifestyle. Fast food, Pay-wave style payments, internet streamed music and video content, social media platforms, online shopping (with rapid delivery), and synthetic pharmaceuticals to sculpt your present state of mind. Also worth noting that stimulants seemed to have become the drugs of choice of late rather than the 'old school' botanical relaxant style choices of a few decades back.

Agree with the comments relating motoring to expense. Although the move towards electrically powered mobility will significantly reduce the cost of personal transportation over the coming decades (especially as EV prices continue to drop), though the increasing trend in the younger generation towards shunning personal vehicle ownership and use will play a major part in how much influence this demographic will influence road mortality over that time.

People do drugs because it makes them feel good. The person struggling to survive on a low income who needs a break however short, from a miserable existence, the bloke having a few drinks after work, the daft teenagers taking risks with dodgy drugs, the poor sod hooked on something even worse - they run the risk presumably by telling themselves that 'it won't happen to them'. Exactly as anyone taking a risk or committing a crime does.
Taking responsibility for our actions isn't something that everyone seems capable of doing, sadly.

Perhaps we need to come up with some alternative to cars, though what that could be I don't know. But I do know that we're an endlessly inventive species so someone somewhere may someday do exactly that & invent a viable alternative to cars.