This article largely ignores the cause of the mess. I have visited dozens of overseas cities and could use any of them as an example.
Take Kyoto, Japan for example. It is the ancient capital of Japan. It is not in the top 5 cities of that country. It is not a business centre, etc. It has a population of 1.5 million in its greater municipality. 
It has better subways with 32 stations, (express) municipal train service and buses than any Canadian city. I am not even pointing to the subway systems of major cities like Frankfurt, London or Paris. Tokyo and London are served by over a hundred stations with above ground trains and buses in-between. 
In Canada, in the meanwhile, conservatives see the price of everything and value of nothing. Imagine if a government wanted to raise taxes to build a subway system. There would be howls of protest from the same people who are 'overtaxed' but sitting in traffic in their new model tank, er SUV, going nowhere fast.