I think one of the reasons our transport system is almost "third world" - no one wants to commit funds to build it. Small prototypes are built, but raising taxes to provide the service, buy the land, build the infrastructure, etc. prevents carrying out the full program. We have lots of toys in our homes, but outside the home, the public services are collapsing all too rapidly.
John Galbraith, The Affluent Society, 1957: " The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power steered and power-braked automobile out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter, blighted buildings, billboards, and posts for wires that should long since have been put underground. They pass on into a countryside that has been rendered largely invisible by commercial art. . . . They picnic on exquisitely packaged food from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night at a park which is a menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air mattress, beneath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings. Is this, indeed, the American genius? . . ."