I grew up in a small middle-class town in the mid-west, population of 5,000 and has not changed much in 100 years.  I spoke with someone born in the early 1920's who was born and raised there.  She told me that there used to be a trolley that circled the entire town on a regular schedule.  Everyone used it to get into our small little downtown which had a grocery, hardware, meat, clothing, shoe store, etc.  No one needed a car because of (GASP) public transportation being conveniently available.  All the dedicated lines for this were removed long ago and buildings have been placed where they once were.  Why did we give this up?