The "car mandatory" suburb sprawls are a huge part of the problem. Most of them are deliberately deprived of decent public transit, because a segment of people

The "car mandatory" suburb sprawls are a huge part of the problem. Most of them are deliberately deprived of decent public transit, because a segment of people don't want buses and especially don't want trains in/near their neighborhood. The most common explanation I've heard is that public transit attracts the homeless, the poor and criminals. A lot of suburbs are even designed to prevent walkability for the same reasons, leaving out logical shortcut footpaths and bike paths between streets and cul-de-sacs. This obviously speaks to a whole host of societal problems and paranoia, to be honest. With a good local train network with stops in every neighborhood, you could just leave the car at home and not have to worry about parking in the city.