I wish there were more stories about metro lines being completed "in record time" in the US. Or being completed at all. Can we still build anything besides more highways?
I'd much rather see taller buildings, wider streets with exclusive bus lanes, and wider sidewalks if I'm being honest. I live in one of the ten largest cities in the country and all we seem to do is turn parking into bike lanes that nobody uses because it's cheap and gets applause from the hip crowds. Meanwhile if you suggest expanding infrastructure everybody uses people throw a fit and say it can't be accommodated while ignoring that we could just get rid of height limits and build blocks taller instead of wider so that the cars and pedestrians could benefit.
I wonder where you live where the bike infrastructure goes unused and why? Is it because of the climate? I live in Berlin which isn't that mild (it's not in-land Canada/Russia but it's not coastal California either) and the new bike lanes they started expanding during covid have been met with a lot of praise & people seem to use them a lot.
Even a bike lane with a lot of traffic often seems empty because bikes use up so little space. So even if there are a lot of bikes, the car lanes will look much busier than the bike lane.
Taller buildings definitely want a metro, that's going to generate far more traffic than can fit if everyone is in a car.
Only for long distances. Walking and cycling makes much more sense within high density areas. Metros are mostly to move between areas.