It is fitting that The Oprah Winfrey Show chose the Martin Luther King Day of Service to air its program on distracted driving. Spreading awareness about this deadly epidemic is a huge contribution to the safety of millions of Americans. For that public service, I enthusiastically thank Oprah. And I encourage everyone who didn’t see the show to visit Oprah’s website where you can watch segments of the show, read the transcript, and SIGN THE PLEDGE! Oprah’s online pledge draws a line in the sand that says, “NO! We will not do this anymore.”

The most heart-wrenching part of the show was the “after the show” feature that had relatives of those killed in distracted driving accidents share the names of their loved ones and tell their stories. The first two families to tell their story had relatives killed while walking and biking, respectively.

Is it just me, or does it seem like this show could represent a bit of a tipping point for this issue? Then again, many of the automakers spent the recent Detroit Auto Show rolling out new (dangerous) ways to use phones and the internet while behind the wheel.

What do you think?

UPDATED (7/31, or less than 24 hours later): Acting faster than anyone probably thought Congress was capable of, the House approved an influx of $2 billion in additional funding today to the program to keep it going. The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure next week.

The government’s new Cash For Clunkers program (C.A.R.S) has been active for less than a week, but it looks to be heading for a premature end. The Associated Press is already reporting that the the Department of Transportation has been making calls to legislators to let them know that they’re planning to suspend the program at midnight tonight. (Thursday 7/30)

Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of the deals in the government system, prompting the suspension.

A survey of 2,000 dealers by the National Automobile Dealers Association found about 25,000 deals had not yet approved by NHTSA, or nearly 13 trades per store. It raised concerns that with about 23,000 dealers taking part in the program, auto dealers may already have surpassed the 250,000 vehicle sales funded by the $1 billion program.

There is still the possibility that the program could be extended with another infusion of cash, which the AP story does not mention.

The relative merits of the program and the effect on actually having any impact on improving fleet vehicle mileage have been debated elsewhere, but it was clearly a popular program during its first week in existence. (Did you see the TV commercials?) But as Elana Schor over at Streetsblog Capitol Hill pointed out the other day, some experts claimed that only a marginal number of cars would be bought that wouldn’t have been purchased regardless.

While the DOT estimates that as many as 250,000 autos will be scrapped before the initial infusion of cash runs out, car industry forecasters at Edmunds.com believe only 50,000 extra sales will result, leaving the taxpayers with a whopping $20,000 bill for every new car purchased.

But if you know anyone who still has their doubts about just how much our country has cut back on driving — and just how long we’ve been doing it for — be sure to show them this new report from the Washington, D.C. think tank The Brookings Institution.

There’s a whole lot of data and analysis available if you want to read the whole report, but for someone looking to get a general idea of what’s happening on our roads, this first sentence really says it all:

Driving, as measured by national VMT[vehicle miles traveled], began to plateau as far back as 2004 and dropped in 2007 for the first time since 1980. Per capita driving followed a similar pattern, with flat-lining growth after 2000 and falling rates since 2005. These recent declines in driving predated the steady hikes in gas prices during 2007 and 2008. Moreover, the recent drops in VMT (90 billion miles) and VMT per capita (388 miles) are the largest annualized drops since World War II.

Combine those numbers with our skyrocketing demand for transit, and it seems pretty clear what Americans want — clean, green infrastructure, and a complete transportation system that gives us plenty of options for getting around.