I think the state of infrastructure and culture reinforce each other in ways that are incredibly complicated, but getting the infrastructure built does seem easier in more collectivist cultures, which is almost everywhere else.

To take a small scale local example: Mpls recently built a stretch of a small street to a proper world class standard for traffic calming & bike provisions. They’ve seen a wild increase in the number of ppl biking on it. Yet it’s not as if ppl were clamoring for it

Yeah, there's definitely a key role for local advocacy groups to make things like that happen. Would be nice if we had Anne Hidalgo-type political leaders in the US, but we don't yet.

Yes, okay, this is a good example! Hidalgo is a socialist, and what I’m trying to say is that this matters. It matters because the status quo from libs here for so long has been for an entire world for the single occupancy vehicle, for independence

Maybe. I'm not sure that ideology and "good on transit" necessarily fit all that well, beyond US conservatives being a nightmare for transit.

The street had to have been rebuilt anyway. If it had maintained its car-centric focus it would have seemed “natural.” Simply in accordance with what should be. But to reorient its design was contra naturam