Old Core Europe and Japan have crowded with less available land than the United States has. So it makes sense for them to trade both labor and capital for more land — in other words, to have the high-density living and working arrangements which make rail transport make sense. The United States has much more land undre much less stress, so that arrangement does not make as much sense. For any level of economic development, western Europe and Japan would rationally have more rail transport than the United States.

Over 2/3rds of all oil in America is consumed in the transportation sector, which is why Carter’s “sweater” suggestion was totally doomed to fail, and rubber tires on asphalt or concrete roads is aupid way to do it.

And, I think it is important to recall, it was Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, who also happened to be he former head of General Motors, that created the Interstate Highway System. You might think it is convenient, but it is a) not efficient, and b) a _real_ stretch to suggest it was vital for national defense.