I disagree with the premise. Happiness with a transportation system does not correlate with the absolute speed you can go. Instead, I think it would correlate with "how many interesting/useful places can I reach with x effort". Most of the regions listed with fast transportation have things spread out much more.

If the grocery store is a mile away, and it takes 5 minutes to drive there it is equivalent to being a couple of blocks away and it taking 5 minutes to walk there. (This assumes walking and driving are equally as easy). Or likewise if I had to commute to work every day by car for 1 hour, it doesn't matter how fast the car moves. I lost 1 hour of my time and that hour is traded for transportation happiness.

I would argue that the faster regions have things spread out so far that it doesn't make up for the faster travel. I lived in both the Southern U.S. and now in San Francisco and I easily see this as being true. Travel by car in the south is MUCH faster than in SF, but it doesn't make up for way things are spread out.