Earlier quoted context omitted.
Legally mandating remote work and adding public transit options and raising the cost of daily useless commute would go a veeeeeery long way. Because the petrol not burned by driving can be used to replace the coal plants.
I think you are overestimating the amount of jobs that can be done remotely. Things that can never be done remotely: agriculture, construction, manufacture, hospitality, a big part of health/elder care, a big part of education, anything that requires expensive equipment (research, ...), artists/shows/events, the list goes on. A lot of these sectors were either closed or running slow during COVID, which was not sustai…
Urbanization is still in full force, cities are growing. (Even if COVID put a dip in the graph.)
Sure, the number one problem is density, but the US is ridiculously rich enough to support enough buses doing the rounds.
Agriculture is not causing congestion. (The rare combine on the rural road leading a queue is the exception.)
Construction is also a small part of the overall traffic. (Especially with more and more prefab happening around the world.)
Manufacturing, sure, production lines need operators, engineers, etc. Yet at the same time (speaking from experience) about half of the staff could do remote.
> So even if every single person that can work remotely does so, still expect big cities with transportation issues.
No questions there, but as I said a few sentences back, the peak is the problem. The upkeep (maintenance costs) for a transit network that can serve X number of people all commuting at the same time (in the same direction) is basically double than a network for half (or ~80%) of that demand.