Comment by billythemaniam

Public transportation alone cannot solve the problem in the US. It can't even make a large enough dent to really make a difference. Most of those other countries are like a small US state, but the US is much, much larger. Even a medium sized US state is larger than most of those countries. There is a massive scale difference that needs to be taken into account. Because of that scale difference, it is hard for public transportation in the US to appeal to our innate desire for convenience. That's why public transportation works so well in small countries, that transportation can take most people to most places cost effectively. In other words, it is convenient for them.