I agree with your assessment of the highway system.
But saying [t]he popularity of detached housing...[is] a historical anomaly is somewhat misleading.
Widespread prosperity is new by historical standards. Penicillin is new by historical standards. Air conditioning is new by historical standards. It's unclear why owning detached housing - similar to what only richer people used to own - is any different.
The popularity of detached housing is really only a post-WWII phenomenon created by massive infrastructure investments in highways and tax incentives for homeownership (versus renting, which is basically pouring money down a hole in the US). It's a historical anomaly, and I don't think you can disentangle the desire for detached homes from the policy structures that incentivize it.