>>1703258TLDR: The US is huge and most Americans don't really give a shit about public transport outside of larger cities (only about 4% of US land area).
Usually massive countries have difficulty with public transport outside of urban/suburban areas (central and eastern Russia, central/western US and Alaska, northern Canada, inland Australia are some examples). Granted, transport infrastructure in the US for civilian passengers is generally pretty shit anywhere in the US because there is low priority for it given 85%+ of Americans have access to or use a personal vehicle for commutes and travel within the states (even across the continent sometimes).
The lower 48 is ~2,700 miles (~4300km) as the crow flies between WA and ME, W. to E.
And ~1,600 miles (~2600km) N. to S. from ND/Canada border to S. TX
Note that Europe without counting European Russia is only ~2.4 million sq mi (6.2 million sq km). While the lower 48 of the US is ~3.1 million sq mi (8.1 million sq km).
3.93m sq mi (10.1m sq km) with European Russia, and 3.79m sq mi (9.8m sq km) with Alaska for the US, while Canada is an additional 9.9m sq km bordering the US with a population density lower than even Russia (the US has more land area than Canada though, Canada has more total area which includes water area). An area similar to Europe with half the population and of this population roughly 2/3rds live in the eastern 1/3rd of the lower 48 resulting in massive swaths of rural or un-populated terrain with little to no public transport infrastructure (nor it being very important in these areas). US cities occupy around only 4% of the total land area of the entire US. In Europe the population is almost uniformly spread about the entire land area minus parts of western Russia and Scandinavia and tiny parts of the Iberian peninsula. The distance between sizable cities and towns is far less and public transport has a higher priority than it does in the US.
