Some cities already have these transportation programs.

Perth, for example, has been putting in its train lines down the center of the two main freeways.

The cities that have gone for tollways have pretty much always had public transport exclusion contracts with the tollway operators with significant penalties if they put in any public transport that competes with the tollways.

I think that you will have to wait for the tollway revenues to decrease with falling traffic to get the tollway operators to come to the table and negotiate over their closure.

Michael

I had mentioned the Transperth solution in my post:
"Did Katrina Hide the Real Peak in World Oil Production? And Other Oil Supply Insights"
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3052