Driving in that case is only slower if the train schedule matches more or less perfectly with your trip AND your destination is very close to a train station.

Driving in that case is only slower if the train schedule matches more or less perfectly with your trip AND your destination is very close to a train station. That's not the reality of train travel. You often wait for pretty long lengths of time for the train to arrive and then have to deal with transit on the other end. The in-transit time for a train (just like a plane) must be MUCH faster than driving for it to ever really be worth it from an efficiency point of view. That's why we prefer planes to go long distances and trains in cities where driving times are very high (like NYC). There are a lot of issues with cars (traffic, sprawl, environmental concerns, etc..) but Americans don't prefer cars in general because Americans are stupid, cars solve the last mile in a way that trains/planes just can't.