The US being a giant country has very little to do with the US being mostly car-dependent for the activities of everyday life. We built most of our settlements

The US being a giant country has very little to do with the US being mostly car-dependent for the activities of everyday life. We built most of our settlements on the inexpensive outskirts of existing settlements, with free roads and cheap (and secure, as the world's greatest oil producer at the time) oil. We saw such development as 'business' & 'industry' rather than 'planning', and largely consigned design elements to private developers, with the asterisk that we would pay for whatever roads and utilities they needed - including an interstate highway system that was practically a wonder of the world at the time. Strong tax inducements on depreciation of commercial property, and ownership of a single-family home, resulted in an ever-growing sprawl. We actually tore up most of the public transportation that existed in the early 20th century, and the economic vacuum of urban decay accelerated itself with racial tension that much of the rest of the world does not have.