[tsunagatta]

The tail wags the dog a little in this case; you could equally say that America’s chosen mode of transport forces lower density: large parking lots and wide roads take up a lot of space where people could otherwise live and work. Wide roads also make it harder to walk around locations, making transit less inviting since walking itself is less inviting.

[treflop]

In my opinion, it's largely because American cities are new.

If you are building a new city, you do not start with high density. Individual developers start with the cheapest build out because no one will pay a premium for a multi-level structure until cheap single-level builds are exhausted. Then as centuries pass, because there is no more undeveloped land, the city is forced to redevelop existing plots and increase density.

Many Asian and Western cities are hundreds or thousands of years old.

America's transit woes is because we live in a new country with new cities in previously mostly uninhabited land.

[nunez]

s/uninhabitated/stolen/

[kevin_thibedeau]

The interstate highway system is largely to blame. As it expanded, It usurped rail travel that only effectively served a smaller number of established cities. It is more convenient to drive shortish distances within a region than to hassle with train schedules and the problem of getting transport from the station to the final destination. This then assisted the growth of post-war cities that were mere backwaters 75 years ago.