Raise the Hammer

Wow. Sure hope you wrote that for some other purpose than RTH. I do not have the time to thoroughly read the whole thing let alone have the kind of time it took to write that. Most of what I skimmed through had a very familiar ring to it. The big problem for transit in most Canadian and American cities is population density. Compared to most European cities ours are much lower density. If you look at the actual numbers the difference is quite staggering. Where the density (and overall size) really climb up there, we actually have decent transit just look at Toronto or New York. The other factor you do not address is the price of homes. Buying the typical single family home with the white picket fence so many of us want and have is virtually impossible in most of Europe for the vast majority of the population. This lifestyle is the leading contributing factor to the whole urban sprawl "problem". As long as we encourage or even tolerate this lifestyle we will have all of the same problems. Do you want to be the one to tell the people they cannot have that house with the white picket fence. I sure do not.
I know 6 families who have moved from Toronto to Hamilton for this single reason. In 4 at least 1 of the them still commutes to Toronto and they hate every second of it. Why? because they want that single family house and are willing to pay for it in so many ways.
Personally I would love to not have a car and all the expenses that go with it but it just is not feasible. The city is to spread out. Take a bus during rush hour and they are full and standing room only. Take that same bus in the evening and the wait is extensive because the few buses that are running are practically empty.
Things are changing slowly very very slowly. How much further can people commute?