You can do the same thing with a rail pass and frequent service. Hop on, hop off, whatever schedule you want. It's a wonderful way to travel.

You could even gasp rent a car at a stop if you want to go further out into the wilderness for a bit. Or bicycles. Or horses. Or hang-gliders.

The places you should only be able to get to with mass transport are city centers, where cars are an incredibly dangerous polluting menace.