Few dispute that current private automobile use is unsustainable although motorized freight transportation, long-distance vacation and business travel by air also importantly contribute to the unsustainability of transportation. In this presentation we review research assessing the effectiveness, public attitudes towards, and political feasibility of measures that limit local and global damages to the environment caused by automobile use. These measures include clean automobile technology, rebuilding the environment to increase accessibility by walking and bicycling, improving public transport, and reducing automobile use by implementing prohibition, pricing and information measures. Our conclusion is that no measure is sufficient alone but that several need to be combined. In particular, it is not even in the longer term likely that clean automobile technology, increasing accessibility by rebuilding the environment or improving alternative travel modes suffice unless governments do not also implement measures that reduce automobile use. Since scientific evidence indicates that voluntary information and pricing measures may achieve 5-30% reductions in urban areas, the often heard counter-argument from interest groups that the automobile use cannot be reduced cannot be taken seriously.