[kelnos]

I don't think we're talking solely about cities here; suburban and rural areas can never be sustainably and cost-effectively served by public transit, at least not the kind of areas with densities you'll find in the US.

Certainly US cities are very weak on the public transit front, and there's a lot of improvement that can be made there. Even then, though, there are a lot of municipalities in the US that technically are considered "cities" but don't have enough density to make pervasive public transit feasible.

[tsudounym]

Switzerland has villages with only hundreds of people that regularly receive train service. There are states with similar GDP, size and density as Switzerland that do not have any train service.

Sprawling suburbs are a giant scam - the cost of providing urban amenities (power, internet, sewage) to these neighborhoods is much higher than it appears. The lines of pipes and power lines in sprawling burbs cost wayyyy more than it would to maintain a transit oriented development full of townhomes and condos.

[frumper]

The US has counties with larger land areas than the entire country of Switzerland. Also, we largely don't want to live in townhomes and condos.

Update: San Bernardino County is 33% larger than Switzerland with 25% of the population. America is a big place.