I have a different perspective on this. I would agrue that the need for a third class medical has killed the utility of private aircraft. It certainly has for me. In 43 years of flying, I've had six aircraft, and I used them for business travel and personal travel to the tune of 8000+ hours. I live in Ohio, and I found that for almost any destination east of the Mississippi river, I could beat the airlines every time, and I could set my own schedule. Also, I frequently could find an airport closer to my destination than the nearest commercial airport. For personal travel, because my airport is just 15 minutes from my home, I could get there quickly and in the air in no time at all. In my experience, Interstate highways didn't allow me to get places faster in a car than I could in my own aircraft. For example, Cleveland and Columbus are both 2.5 to 3 hours from my home in a car. In my aircraft I could get there in less than an hour! My airplanes were equipped for IFR so weather was not a problem. I've flown all over the world in my own aircraft, Europe, South America, the North Pole and Siberia among other places, so you can see I've found private aircraft good vehicles for getting places. At age 72, I started to wonder if I could pass future medicals, and I wasn't going to take a chance and get turned down and therefore be grounded for the rest of my life, so I let my medical lapse and now I'm constrained by the limitations of LSA aircraft, i.e., no IFR, no night flying, reduced cruise speeds, etc., etc. I'm not ready to quit flying, but because of the requirement for a medical, my options have certainly been curtailed. I must say I fail to see the logical in not allowing me to keep flying an airplane in which I have thousands of hours and that is equipped for IFR, but it is O.K. for me to fly a somewhat underpowered airlane with limited capabilities in which I have almost no time at all. The mess we have now flying commercially with security hassels, crowded planes, too small seats, cancelled and delayed flights, have driven me to my car except for destinations that are really far off. The comfort of my car compared to commercial airline makes the additional travel time worth it. So, the car didn't replace my own airlpanes, but the car often seems a better alternative to the airlines. Get rid of the requirement of a medical for private flying and my experience is that, for me, general aviation beat all other methods of transportation hands down. With the cost of fuel going up, the loss of the ability to really use your airplane for travel because of the loss of IFR capability because pilots shy away from the specter of a failed medical, along with the increased restricted airspace from things like pop-up TFRs and expanding Class B airspace, and the attraction of private flying becomes questionable. I'll still make my $50 hamburger flights, but I sure miss the freedom and utility I had not that many years ago.