Originally Posted by Gear_Admiral

That is s big factor in the USA: states. Because most Americans live in suburbs, their thinking changes to match their environment and imagining another environment is hard. To them, car dependency is natural and perhaps all they know and a bike lane to work does not provide value for them because work is 40 miles away. This too is "just the way the world is."

In such an environment, state-level politicians will not run on redesigning development to have networks of well connected dense towns, an end to subsidizing suburbia, or a boost to farm town infrastructure to help farmers bring goods to rail freight. Sadly, the state is where the money and power tend to be.

The municipality can swing politically in a positive way, but it can do some things well and others not well. If the town is poor, it may depend on the state for a lot.

Then some activists go to the extreme of the national government, which is like a hat trick: getting Congress and the presidency on board. In any case, the federal governmemt too often blindly throws money or just blindly entrusts the money for states to do whatever they want.

(The one key exception is trains. Getting Amtrak to own more rail lines outright would help service and maybe remove the lunatic but about needing to turn a profit (to pay to use private railroad tracks) when the highways hemorrhage money and no one cares.)

The state is so important. It should be at a higher level of focus.