I've been wanting this for years, but their needs to be a upper fine limit. No one should get a $5000 ticket. That said, a $500 ticket can make some poor people loose their residence, or go without eating. I remember getting a high priced ticket in college, and my transmission went out on that day too. It ate up all my savings, and I seriously thought it's(college) is not worth it. I was working on the weekends at a union job, but barely getting by. It just doesn't make sense that a person's income isn't a factor in the fee structure. (My mom used to go to court and the judge would reduce the fee, but that was the 70's- 80's; I hear that tactic seldom works, or the reduction is not much?)

>If you have a family of 3 kids, using public transit costs more than a car.

Depends on where you live and how old the kids are. In my neck of the woods, kids get to ride free up to a certain age (like 4 or 5). After that they pay adult fares.

If you're going the maximum fare distance at rush hour, it's something like $5.90 one way here per adult, but parking is like $15-$20. At that point you may be better of driving if you don't value your time (traffic is abysmal).

My own commute is $2.20 one way at rush hour. Even with five adults (two parents and three kids over four years of age) the $22 you'd spend roundtrip on transit fares is comparable to the cost of driving and parking, but with less hassle.

In cities like New York with cheaper fares and reasonable monthly passes you can drastically cut down on your transit costs and also have to deal with massively more expensive parking (if any) and tolls.

Of course, one of the advantages of urban areas like mine with regards to travel cost is that many trips can be done without any wheels whatsoever, be they steel or rubber. The grocery store is across the street, next to the pharmacy, there're a few doctors offices, many restaurants, convenience stores, schools, parks, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc. all within a few minutes on foot.

All of those trips are essentially free (minus the wear and tear on your shoes and clothes), promote good health, have a reduced environmental impact, reduce traffic, and require less tax resources than other forms of travel.

Bringing the whole family on transit would be a less common occurrence. For certain trips, ZipCar or Car2Go may also be an option. Also, for trips outside of walkable or transit accessible areas, rental cars are available. I myself have a rental car agency across the street, so if I wanted to go hiking and didn't own a car I could.