I share your concerns, though I'd also add that HN is a very self-selected group of people and not necessarily representative of the people having these convers

I share your concerns, though I'd also add that HN is a very self-selected group of people and not necessarily representative of the people having these conversations. Also, given the nature of the work and the insane level of competition right now, anyone working on this first-hand would be wise to not speak about these things in public. So the only commenters are urban planning and infrastructure folks who don't work first-hand on the problem - and fortunately they are writing extensively about it. People who have first-hand expertise on the matter are prevented from speaking extensively about it, which leaves the remainder of the commentary to the peanut gallery. And the peanut gallery is unfortunately filled with people whose visions of the future resemble more of the Jetsons than anything practical.