[LostInBayport]

The legislation is designed to prod local communities toward high-density, public transit-oriented neighborhoods that concentrate large numbers of people into small geographic areas connected by train and bus networks.

It's been a while since I read it, but I'm pretty sure this description was used somewhere in Dante's "Inferno".

Progressives loathe the fact that we are free to roam about in our cars, listening to what we want, making choices about where to go and what to do, and living in woodsy rural areas where streets have no sidewalks. In other words, they hate that we can get away from THEM. They can piss off.

"Live free or die" is taking on renewed meaning.

[La Lydia]

There demon/ Charon beckons them, with his eyes of fire; / crowded in a herd, they obey if he should summon, / and he strikes at any laggers with his oar...

Substitute "prod" for "oar," and there you have it.