[WhyCause]

You're assuming that the daily commute is short for most people.

I live in a fairly dense US city, and there is a fair percentage of downtown office workers that live more that 40 miles out, which given the routes they have to take and the traffic involved can often take 45 minutes to an hour.

[peoplefromibiza]

Same here.

In Rome 1.5 million people a day come to the city to work, over a population of ~3 million residents.

In Milan it's 1 million people, over 1.5 million residents.

Still on average cars are much smaller than in NY or Los Angeles, I'll say that in Rome and Milan cars are much smaller than the Italian average, because parking space is very limited.

The western World is not that different everywhere you go, except some traits of US, which are not that western if you ask me, they are more similar to countries that just discovered market economy and consumerism.

[busterarm]

There are folks out in the (mid)west who have 3-4 hour commutes to work. In fact, the further you go in that direction up until a couple of hours from the west coast, that's closer to normal.

[boudin]

It's still short enough for a small electric car. You're often one or two in the car. And you can still buy a comfortable small car.

[rufus_foreman]

When I lived on the west coast, living 10 miles from work took (much) more than 45 minutes for the commute.