This depends on how you define ROI. Car infrastructure and lack of density reduces tax revenue for cities and strains infrastructure.

There are other human benefits to reducing car traffic and use in favor of public transportation: * Reduces air pollution * Noise pollution * Allows a focus on human centric urban planning * Allows for higher density commercial and residential increasing tax revenue * Reduces pedestrian traffic injury

Well done video essays:

Parking minimums https://youtu.be/OUNXFHpUhu8?si=xAxUHCA0xmxCIZWg

Noise pollution https://youtu.be/CTV-wwszGw8?si=Eov6X3Z3I1T0l_bd

Infrastructure strain https://youtu.be/7Nw6qyyrTeI?si=KrVJ3tDaODHNGBwm

More on Infrastructure and Sprawl https://youtu.be/SfsCniN7Nsc?si=0ulEtryX4K6Ysy-N

Articles:

https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/public-transportation#:~:...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379358672_Vehicle_n...

https://www.britannica.com/topic/urban-sprawl/Costs-of-urban...

Climate town videos are all well researched and provide an enormous amount of follow-up content from their sources.

Generally, I care about all of the above and I perceive investments in public transportation to have a higher ROI.

Some extra historical context is helpful too: https://youtu.be/oOttvpjJvAo?si=ZGXF81qJnD_Fgw0L

The book The Color of Law by Rothstein is worth a read.

In the end there is a balance between public transportation and car dependency and right now the scales are leaning too much in favor of cars.