We talk about long distance travel because it's the only thing that makes sense. None of the cities parent listed outside maybe Chicago are walkable. You WILL need a car at all those destinations. So why wouldn't I drive my own car? It's a requirement to own one in the Midwest (I live there). I'd love rail but it just doesn't make sense as none of our cities are walkable and the bus routes are either once an hour at best or non existent. If you put a rail line from Chicago to Madison to Twin Cities, I highly doubt it would get any use because all of these people already own cars and would get there faster and more conveniently.
That's great but it's not going to happen for a generation or two even if people wanted it. This isn't SimCity, we can't just rip everything up and start over. The fight to make cities walkable will take sustained efforts for the next 100 years.
