1. Some Politician: We need to invest in public transportation.
2. Planning Commission: Okay but it's geographically infeasible to blanket the city in busses, the only thing that is going to work is a rail system to cover the long distances and have busses to cover the last mile.
3. Sounds great! Let's put together a proposal.
4. Politician: Hahahahahahahaha we can't afford that. Also people will riot if we eminent domain literally thousands of homes.
5. Politician: What if we just added really annoying bike lanes to like 3 roads that will sit there empty because a dedicated lane wasn't what was stopping people from riding their bikes?
6. Planning Commission: But that won't actually he....
7. Politician: LOOK AT HOW WE'RE INVESTING IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!!1 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. GREEN. ENVIRONMENT.
Like good lord if they would actually commit to more than just some symbolic non-solutions I would volunteer to swing a hammer to lay tracks.