[phil21]

The US built stuff though. Not even that long ago.

Subway systems don’t take all that much land from private parties and are effectively too expensive to build here. Not to mention how long they take.

It’s because we decided it must be this way. If we decided (as a society) building stuff was important we could do so. It will take an existential crises for this attitude to shift though.

When you propose building quite literally anything here you will have people saying “no” crawling out of the woodwork. We decided to empower such people both legally and socially.

[Melatonic]

Los Angeles is building a ton of new subway systems ( I think maybe more than anywhere else in the US ) where it is far from easy. If LA Metro can pull it off then so can elsewhere!

[SoftTalker]

Long-distance passenger rail isn't something we (as a society) want. So it doesn't get built. We still build highways for cars. We still build commuter rail, where population density supports it.