Funny you should mention Seattle as it is possible the worst city I have ever lived in with regards to infrastructure, both in terms of amount per capita and ma

Funny you should mention Seattle as it is possible the worst city I have ever lived in with regards to infrastructure, both in terms of amount per capita and maintenance. Most of its white collar jobs are concentrated in one small area (in contrast to other regions which are more distributed) and it has the infrastructure of a much smaller city. The local government believes in only expanding transit infrastructure while leaving roads and bridges to rot, and so far their actions haven't improved travel times at all but they do certainly cost an enormous amount: the most recent ballot proposition allocated almost a billion dollars per mile of rail. I've found this urban design has created isolated neighborhoods where people without cars refuse to travel more than a mile away from home. An example that comes to mind is friends living in Capitol Hill refusing to visit any restaurant in Fremont, a distance of around 3.5 miles with both locations being located directly on highly trafficked bus lines, but if offered a ride (in a car) they would come. For comparison, when in the car-centric cities I lived in, people were willing to travel anywhere in the metro area. Now this is just a few pieces of anecdotal evidence, and you may reply with examples of people who behave completely differently, but it's no better to assume that everyone hates driving and living less dense areas just because you personally dislike them. I prefer living in an area that doesn't hate cars with a passion, and I'm far from the only one who thinks so.