Just a minor note: Our terrible public transit is due to our society revolving around the motto "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." In my city, you can find overpasses that were purposely designed to not let buses fit through to further emphasize how "terrible" public transit is, and how we all need our own car. Those with money & power then moved into the Suburbs, and thereby even more legislation was made to ease suburbian transit.