I d not know about your planet, but here in Baltimore the "light rail" is called by suburbanites the "dark rail" - a stupid racist joke on the fact that public transit in this area is used almost exclusively by Black folk (and a few white crackpots like myself).
The fact that you hardly see a white face on Baltimore's public transit is mainly because suburban and urban whites and their elected representatives resist this mode of transportation tooth and nail. The suburbanites do it because of "crime" - the image of inner cities darkies taking the dark rail to the burbs to steal tee-vees and than hauling the loot back to "the city" is quite vivid in the white suburban mind. The urban whiteys do it to save "their" parking spaces - a bus stop takes away two or three parking spaces, and there are bus stops every other block - so just imagine how many more SUV behemoths you can park if you get rid of the bus. Besides "nobody (read: no white person) is riding them buses." If you think I am making it up, I urge you to attend a public hearing on transportation issues.
The things get even worsde when you move away from Baltimore to PA. Harrisburg has one of the worst traffic congestions in th entire region caused mainly by suburban sprawl, and the push to develop public transit (light rail) comes mainly from above (it is four times cheaper to build railways that expressways) - but faces stiff popular opposition - as evidenced by letters to editors. Most central Pennsylvanians abhore anything that even smacks of cities - they love trucks, guns and deer-hunting to the point that opening of the deer hunting season is an unofficial state holiday (schools and offices close on that day, seriously!).
James Heartfiled opines that Europe becomes like the US when it comes to suburbanization. Gee, I wish I had some of that stuff he's been inhaling. Where do those wealthy suburbs spring up - in Russia? I understand that many Brits and US-ers share the predilection for bland, spiceless food, hunting for pleasure, and insular mentality - but that is not enough for suburbanization. You need another crucial ingredient - space, and that seems to be in rather short supply on the other side of the pond.
The main reason why suburbanization took over the US but not Europe is population density - the US has population density 31 persons per square kilometer, the UK has eight (sic!) times that much (246 persons per sq km), France - 110/sq km, Germany - 231 sq/km (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density#List_of_countries_and_their_ population_densities). So unless the UK is already shipping its subjects to the moon or its fox hunters to Russia (pop. density 8.5 persons per sq. km) - I am not holding my breath to see it becoming like the US in this respect any time soon.
There is a certain tendency, particularly visible on the Left, to explain every aspect of human behavior in determinist terms, full of larger than-life forces tossing helpless human monads around. Looking at macro-structural factors to explain human behavior is undoubtedly a valid scientific pursuit, but it faces the danger of crossing the thin line between explanation and excuse. In my opinion, that demarcation line has been crossed long time in the US political discourse. The pundits are trying to explain anything anymore, just to blame or exonerate.
The same can be said of this discussion on urbanization and public transportation. Everyone but me is pointing to some real or imaginary macro-structural factor that "make" people move to the burbs, buy gas guzzling behemoths, and send their kids to racially segregates schools - while ignoring one crucial element - human agency. Nobody has to buy a suburban residence or a gas guzzling behemoth - all who do it, do so by their own choice. The word "choice: is perhaps somewhat misleading here - as these folks rarely weight different options and thoroughly examine cost and benefits of all of them. A more accurate picture is the sheepish following trends - they do what everyone else does and avoid what everyone else avoids not because there is any intrinsic benefit to them, but because they want to be just like everyone, popular and loved.
US-ers are probably one of the most alienated and lonely people on Earth - isolated in their work cubicles for the most of the day, cruising alone in the cocoons of their cars to theier suburban communities where they spend most of their day again alone facing their techno-god, the tee-vee. There are no public places in the burbs when people can get together, no viable communities, nobody knows anyobody or for that matter gives a shit what's going on the other side of his property line. The very architecture of a typical suburban home whose most salient feature is the garage door tells everyone to stay off.
Loneliness and a frantic desire to be loved and popular permeate the suburban life in the US, and prompt people to engage in various bandwagon jumping and herd following activities - from organized religion, to assorted cretinous associations and "lodges," to to slavish following of fashion trends, and to endless popularity contests. Americans may think of themselves as the nation of "individualist" - but that "individualism" is really a window-dressing for loneliness and alienation and a cover up for group think and herd following behavior.
That partly explains the homogenous, pulp-like character of American culture. The US is perhaps the only country on earth where you can get on a plane, fly for six hours, get off and face the same fodder of pulped culture, fashion, life styles, habits and tastes. The desire to belong to the mainstream is perhaps not only what that holds this society together, but also the main poison that kills any real diversity - be it political or cultural. Anything outside the mainstream appears threatening to the heard-seekers.
What does it have to do with suburbanization and public transit? The suburbs and cars seemed to be the ideal solution for "big city alienation" - offering an illusion of a small town togetherness, the car offering the illusion of freedom, connectedness (mobility), and safety. Yet, when embraced, they exacerbated the feeling of loneliness and alienation, took away time from social life, entombed people in metal cocoons, and trapped in the endless web of highways. Like heroine addiction, the suburban life style offered an illusion of high life, but delivered more hangover, bad feelings and craving for another fix.
Yet. Most people get into this addiction voluntarily and fight tooth and nail when someone tries to take that "drug" away. They need another fix, a larger home, a bigger car, a need to escape further away - and at the end of the day crave for belonging to the heard, and come back begging for it anyone who is peddling the illusion of it (cf. Bush). They may be victims of larger force in one sense, but they were not helpless monads thrown into that quagmire, but willingly entered that road.
So when anyone of this list says that Americans have been duped and sold down the river by their government and captains of industry - I say true but that is only half of the story. The other half is that they were willing executioners of their own doom.
PS. Nicholas von Hoffman's piece "Kerry's Not to Blame For America's Delusions" in the New York Observer http://www.observer.com/pages/observer.asp is one of the best pieces of journalism I've seen lately.
Wojtek