Not every place has a good transportation system. The UK does. In most of western hemisphere, you don't have any choice except to drive because there are no buses.
The U.S kind of fucked itself with its road system. Not enough lanes for busses basically. In order to make buses work in the U.S it requires either more lanes (and thus taking up more space) or phasing out cars for buses.
Yeap
More lanes? The problem is their car-centered road design. 4 lanes in a residential area is fucking nuts! More lanes isn't going to promote the use of alternate modes of transportation.
Tram & train infrastructure isn't cheap, and th eUS just doesn't have enough population, nor infrastructure density to make that affordable.
Are you gonna pay for that?
Will it make money?
Almost certainly not, even with government subsidies piled on top of government subsidies. The "customer base" just doesn't exist to even get it to "break-even" in probably 90% of the contiugous United States. Basically, anyplace other than the biggest of "big cities" has zero chance of turning a profit, and even there, I expect that it'll be a damned close thing.
That's just it. How can you get more populated without more efficient transport?
Increase in population density isn't a goal you should strive for...
It's more of a result. Look at China. They try to expand for a reason.
But it does make it happen faster over time. The simple fact of the matter is that more people settling in locations (due to faster transport) would lead to more space for more babies. Easier travel means faster growth. Which in turn means more food.
A German woman I was acquainted with said the same thing about diesel Mercedes. "You had to shoot it to kill it"!???
