We just talked -- Governor Schwarzenegger and Mayor Villaraigosa -- here in Los Angeles, for example, there is an enormous opportunity to deal with traffic and transit and transportation -- (applause) -- in a way that will relieve congestion, make this economy more efficient, more productive.

WHITEHOUSE: Town Hall in Los Angeles

Sao Paolo is investing heavily in mass transit to relieve its choking traffic but meanwhile the population continues to grow and its citizens continue to march up the economic ladder to the level where they can buy cars.

FORBES: One Man's Slum Is Another Man's Manhattan

Unusually dry, warm and windy weather helped trigger a rash of wildfires across the region Monday, causing traffic and transit problems, consuming hundreds of acres of forest in South Jersey and forcing evacuations on Long Island.

WSJ: Brush Fires Sear Region

To begin with, the transit mall was scrapped and traffic was re-introduced in 1996.

ECONOMIST: The state of the cities

But while Reagan's stand against the air traffic controllers changed the direction of labor relations, the transit workers in New York actually ended up winning a pretty expensive deal the city probably could have gotten without the confrontation.

WSJ: Insufferable or irrepressible, Koch inspired NYC

So we're working very hard to have a much more effective interdiction effort of south to north -- or north to south traffic than we have in the past, so we are checking southbound transit to try to capture illegal guns, illegal cash transfers to drug cartels.

WHITEHOUSE: Open for Questions with President Obama

Smarter traffic systems can help traffic and public transit systems flow more smoothly, anticipate congestion and improve it in advance, reduce emissions and increase the capacity of infrastructure.

ENGADGET: IBM shows off Smarter Traveler traffic prediction tool

Additionally, the company is also working with the My City Way apps, which cover 40 cities in the US and that many abroad, offering traffic cameras, POIs, and even public transit info -- a little odd for a car company.

ENGADGET: BMW launches new 'i' brand focused on electrification, lower-case letters