Seriously, why is this idea being thrown around? It's not based in reality, and just fuels into pessimism. I'm American, so I'll mostly focus on what I'm seeing here.
There has been so much progress, even just over the past decade. I think the reason that it feels like not much is being done is because the United States is so Massive. Even just New York can contain Beligum, Switzerland and the netherlands.
Looking at the US on a macro scale could give someone a picture of a country eternally doomed to have shitty transit and suburban sprawl forever. Thankfully, we have a beautiful think called local government.
There are a good number of places that you can go in the US that are very walkable and have good transit. Sure, it's not on the level of Europe, but it's definitely a good starting point if we're talking about progress. Especially if we're talking about progress within our lifetimes.
There are a lot of cool projects going on in the US right now, such as new rail lines, rail extensions, new BRT lines, and work being done on density. And of course roped into that we can't forget about the massive California High-Speed Rail project, which if successful could have major implications for rail in the United States at large.
Is this enough? No. But it is real progress, and a sign that we're at the beginning of real change in this country for transit and walkability.
And if you still think the US is shit and you really feel inclined to move out of your current suburban hell hole, you don't even have to leave the US to do so. There are cities where you can go today in the US where you don't have to own a car and can get around by walking. Not everything is a 6 lane stroad with giant parking lots and dead strip malls. We have DC, Philly, Boston and NYC as prime examples, which may not seem like much but NYC alone has 8.8 million people and could sure as shit fit way more.
Sure, we may never live to see the whole US become the netherlands, but I don't think it's unrealistic to think that certain places in the US could be seriously be at that level within our lifetimes.
I don't think you understand the critique. The problem is all of the single-story and two-story construction. There's no way to fix that quickly. It took a century to build it all. It's going to take twice as long to migrate all of that low density into higher density construction and decrease the mileage required to live normal lives. Right now, the average suburbanite has to travel an insane number of total miles to do the basics of what they need to do for their families - food, healthcare, schooling, shelter, clothing, socializing, multi-generational relationships, work.
It's not like local governments can build light rail or even busses to even 50% of the necessary things. Plus they'd have to change zoning codes against all the NIMBY pushback, plus it would take decades to consolidate those activities into higher density buildings.
No, the USA is fucked and it's going to remain fucked for a long time.
So it'll just take a long time to un-fuck it. Maybe we won't even see it in our lifetimes. It also won't be easy, but if everyone gives up and moves then we're basically guaranteed failure.