Thanks for your feedback Quiveran. Yeah I read about how Henry Ford and others sabotaged the street cars. He bought them up and tore up the tracks of somethign as far as I remember.
You speak about the US being a new country with low density, but you might be interested in reading my article on Norwegian neighbourhoods:
https://erik-engheim.medium.com/organization-of-norwegian-suburbs-1391e557c7fd
Norway is in fact much less densely populated than the US, and we developed fairly late so there are few historical towns in Norway like a densely populated country like the Netherlands which was a propserous colonial power hundreds of years ago.
The capital of Norway, Oslo is a fairly modern looking city e.g. The historical areas are mostly from the mid 1800s, not very different from many East coast cities in the US I assume, or San Fransisco for that matter.
The Norwegian countryside looks more populated than in the US though if you travel through it, despite Norway having lower population density.
The primary reason for that I believe is that in the US on allows the formation of large urban sprawl areas. In Norway like the Netherlands governent actively work against that. So this isn't merely about age and history but in large part due to political choices.
In Norway there is a large amount of government funding to maintain spread out settlements. And in the Netherlands when you plan new housing developments you are not allowed to place them so that they cause two towns to melt together.
Thus in the Netherlands and Norway you end up with a lot more small towns spread out the country. While in the US you end up with fewer but larger urban areas.
Not saying anything is better than the other. Pros and cons to both, but it is worth knowing that a lot of things about Europe which I think American believe is somehow natural isn't natural at all. It is politically created. Europe puts in a lot of effort to preserve its history. That is not the case a lot of other places. You can go to Asia e.g. and you will not find many preserved historical town like in Europe.
