Boston is a good counter-example to your point though. People would be willing to use public transportation more because getting in, out and parking cars in Boston is a terrible nightmare, but the public transportation system is so unreliable, poorly designed and horribly operated that people choose to suffer in their cars instead. Also, trying to commute on bike in Boston is only for people with suicidal tendencies because bikes are seen as targets by most drivers here.I don't disagree with you on the essence of your post, but wikipedia tells me Copenhagen was founded in 1167. I don't think there were many bikes back then... I tend to believe most European cities were built slowly, over time, on a 'human' scale. Everything had to be walkable, given that most people didn't even have horses, let alone cars or bikes. That's why most Euro cities (and I think to a large extent Asian and African) cities work better without cars clogging them up, and with transit systems. Vast, sprawling, low-density cities really are a North American phenomenon. And their density is so low that putting transit systems in place doesn't really do much. I think densities need to change if transit is going to be a viable option for a greater proportion of the population.