> capture the cost of the negative externalities
sounds plausible, but also at the same time that'll have some pretty bad side effects since the only people who can get by without driving a car are the completely destitute who don't have anyplace to be (but are a massive burden on the taxpayer in general) and the very wealthy who can afford to live in places like NYC, or like the 5% of addresses in SF that have good transit that could take you to your work in a reasonable time.
So if we made our fuel prices go from £2.50 to £8 what we are really doing is administering an ongoing massive punishment to everybody but those two groups. The middle 80% or so. (And also, hurting transit agencies too since buses run on diesel).