>>1180740They're actually advancing quite a lot, considering where they're coming from. Of course, starting practically from zero in many cities takes a while. I find that Denver is a good example of a city that started out with nothing (except shitty buses ofc) and now has a sizeable LRT and two commuter line. It's a start.
Most american cities don't need metros at all since they lack the density for it. LRT is reasonably cheap to build.
Here in Barcelona we have ok public transit, but there has been little to no improvement in the last 10-20 years, and that which has been done is overbuilt and almost pointless, like a 20 km metro line running from the outside of the city to the airport, all of it underground, built with a TBM, and taking more than twice than the commuter train to get to the airport (and the train reaches the city center directly). Meanwhile road space is being reduced, which is a good thing, but public transport is completely saturated, lacking capacity where it's most needed. All the while politicians have been discussing for 15 years now wether to build 3,6 km of tramway through the city center to unite the two peripheral tram systems, and it's just been voted down again a few weeks ago. Reducing road space while not improving public transit fucks people's mobility up bigtime, and that's terribly hurtful to the economy.
I sometimes wonder if ultra-low-density and car-based mobility isn't actually a better option than insufficient public transit which ends up taking just as long or even longer than sitting in gridlocked traffic, except your stuffed with stinking spaniards in a dank metro and not sitting comfortably in your car.
