For President-elect Obama, fixing the economy is Job One and that means helping fix the car business. Cars are second only to housing as consumer purchases. Sales in October 2008 ran lower than at any time since World War II, adjusting for population growth. Here are 10 suggestions for the new president for curing the nation's automotive and transportation ailments, cleaning up the air, using less energy, and cutting time wasted in traffic.

1. Tough love in Detroit. The Big Three U.S. automakers need help to get out of the messes of their own making, just as Wall Street needs. Their biggest problems for Detroit: Too much reliance on big cars and trucks; too many retirees and health benefits on their books. Quality and reliability isn't a problem any more (really); desirability is. Don't stand in the way of a GM takeover of Chrysler which might be a goner otherwise. Help get retiree healthcare off the automakers' balance sheets.

Is this the start of socialized medicine? Think of it as an extension of Medicare and Medicaid and call that what you want; but, yes, it could be the precursor to universal health care. We need more debate on whether UHC is a drain on the economy (hypochondriacs looking for more cheap doctor visits and MRIs) or a boost (more people can be entrepreneurs and small business owners knowing they don't have to worry about qualifying for health care). Here's the tough love part of the message: Detroit needs to know its glory years have passed. Manufacturing is moving to the Southeast. The world's car design HQ is now California. Electronics technology that makes up more and more value of the vehicle comes from everywhere. Michigan remains a deep pool of automotive talent but some of it needs to relocate.

2. Fund self-driving cars. Autonomous driving cars could be a reality by 2020. They'll allow for greater highway density with fewer accidents and less fuel consumed (no speedup, slowdown, slam-on-the-brakes commuting). In Los Angeles, this will be the alternative to the mass transit that will never happen because of LA's urban sprawl.

3. Raise the gas tax to $1. It will make us think more about the costs of energy (pollution, global warming) as well as the benefits (cheap travel across a big land). We pay 50 cents a gallon on average in federal and state taxes. Raise it by 5 or 10 cents a year until the national average reaches $1. Europeans pay $5 a gallon in taxes. Rebate half the money to motorists as tax credits (those who drive less get more back). Use half to fix roads and bridges, encourage mass transit where it makes sense (not another Amtrak line through the Rockies), fund transportation research, and subsidize hybrids. Economists say an increased gasoline tax will cut fuel usage. But it won't happen because politicians know a gas tax is a non-starter with voters, who prefer "Drill, baby, drill."

4. Fix the highways. Lousy roadways damage cars and unnecessarily slow traffic (slow-down, speed-up, slow-down, swerve-to-avoid-pothole wastes fuel). 10-year-old highway signs that lost their reflectivity make us miss exits and waste fuel or invite accidents. No bridge should ever fall down. If President Obama wants to stimulate the economy by adding jobs, here's one way. Short-term it's a cost; longer term, a benefit.

5. Fund mass transit and improve railways. I love cars. But I use mass transit where I can because it's more efficient. For the dozen U.S. cities with decent rail systems, investment will make commuter rail services ever better (Europeans know how to run trains that don't shake, rattle, and roll). For other areas, support better bus service so long as you don't underwrite a $2 fare with a $2 subsidy. Support a better nationwide freight rail system that can get goods across the country cheaper than trucks can. If only all the railroads had the truckers' sense of timeliness.

6. Make America safer: Lower the drinking age to 18. The big drinking-and-driving problem is 22- to 25-year-olds who live on their own and party like there's no tomorrow. The 21-year age is unenforceable on college campuses and it only keeps some alcohol out of the high schools. It's unfair to those who are otherwise adults. (But as Johnny Hart and Brant Parker noted in an old Wizard of Id cartoon, the 21-year law reduces drunkenness on the front lines.) As the drinking age goes down, police presence on the highways must go up. Make it clear that if you drink and drive, the odds approach 100% that you'll get caught - not just college-age drinkers, but also the reckless under-30s, and the older alcoholics who never stop drinking until they go to jail.

7. Mandate driver's ed in school (real driver's ed). AIDS and suicide aren't the No. 1 killers of children; it's automobiles. So why isn't the leading killer addressed in high school with more vigor than the runners-up? And not just with dull classroom lessons interspersed with graphic accident videos that many kids block out anyway but with hands-on, in-car fieldwork on dealing with wet-weather skids, becoming comfortable with the odd sensation of full-on anti-lock brakes, and making emergency lane changes? A school board that says it can't find the money doesn't have its priorities straight. Serious highway safety instruction should be President Obama's new No Child Left Behind program.

8. Continue hybrid price supports. As the price of gasoline falls, people see less reason to buy hybrids or advanced diesels. Meanwhile, tax credits for most hybrids are expiring. Since the government already hands out money left and right, I don't see why the buyers of a hybrid shouldn't get a modest handout of say, $500, to influence their decision. Just no more access to HOV lines, an inducement that wasted energy because all those extra HOV lane cars slowed down legitimate car poolers, and incentivized people to live 35, not 20, miles from the office.

9. Prioritize research and rulemaking. Better real-time traffic information will speed trips and save gasoline. Maybe it's time to stop funding embedded sensors if moving traffic probes (translation: two-way transponders now and cellphones shortly) can do a better job. But make sure the government guarantees the anonymity of the minute-by-minute cellphone location information. Upgrade local highway databases so changes (a new no-left-turn restriction) automatically ripple to the Navteq and TeleAtlas private databases. Spend transportation money where it does the most good; some safety advances are cool but they might save a couple hundred lives a year when you might save thousands more cheaply (teen driver training, drunken driving enforcement). Support alternative fuels research; ethanol might someday pay off. Support electric car and battery research so this isn't another technology benefitting Japan and Germany (even if they do R&D here) over the U.S. and Canada.

10. Don't demonize the car. Some of the people around the new president think of the motor vehicle as something that should be wiped out, regressively taxed, or ordered to average 45 mpg by the end of Obama's first term. What we need is gentle yet firm incentives toward vehicles that use less energy,

Some of these actions need to happen at the local or state level. But the president has a bully pulpit to sway the country on all levels. Plus, as more and more money flows through Washington, the power to award (or withhold) money can influence actions the states thought they once controlled, such as speed limits and drinking ages.