Mostly because the younger generation wants the world to be habitable for the foreseeable future. But ultimately light rail and cars are not mutually exclusive.

Mostly because the younger generation wants the world to be habitable for the foreseeable future. But ultimately light rail and cars are not mutually exclusive. Property doesn't have to be lost to add it. Heavy rail can largely go parallel to current lines and we can add additional rail lines rather than yet another lane to highways. If you look around, rail + highways is already done and has been for decades, it is just poorly mismanaged to maximize RR profits. I posit that nearly none of the Semi trucks out there are only solving the last mile problem, most of it is interstate transit, which is best served by rail. In places that are upstream of water sources, they need to be heavily in rail to prevent the pollution we're talking about here.