We devote vast amounts of real estate to transportation too. The surface areas of just the on/off ramps of a highway blow my mind. Then there’s the road kill. I wish there was a better way.
For some reason, we humans don't apply system design to all the systems we build. If we were designing a system from scratch, no one would choose only two primary modes of transportation, cars and planes, and then tack on the rest. Instead, we'd choose a variety of modular, de-coupled ways with flexible interfaces to get around: walking, biking, scooters/motorcycles, cars, buses, subways, trains, and planes. Yes, we have all these today, but they are not used. Cars and planes do everything from long distance to short distance trips. Bicyclists, motorcyclists, scooters, and pedestrians are, often literally, sidelined and treated as annoyances. Instead, we should be using the best tools for the job and designing cities to support these variety of ways.
In the U.S., we've given corporations such massive power and leverage that it breaks the system design process. Corporations aren't interested in building holistic systems. They want to build funnel systems that funnel people into their products, just as the car companies did back in the mid-twentieth century to kill off mass transportation methods to instead sell individuals and families the car.
The U.S. could choose to be a world leader in this if it wanted, but it doesn't want to.
In the U.S., we've given corporations such massive power and leverage that it breaks the system design process. Corporations aren't interested in building holistic systems. They want to build funnel systems that funnel people into their products, just as the car companies did back in the mid-twentieth century to kill off mass transportation methods to instead sell individuals and families the car.
The U.S. could choose to be a world leader in this if it wanted, but it doesn't want to.