I might argue that the bay area focuses on transportation technology that is flashy and gets around existing regulations because it is new, with hardly any regard at all for how it scales.
I’ll expound on the first point. European countries and East Asian countries generally have a stronger sense of cultural cohesion, while America has many deep divisions such as:
1. Social liberalism versus social conservatism, which also correlates to a secular versus cultural Christian worldview.
2. Racial and ethnic divides with sometimes centuries of bad blood
3. Class divides between the poor, the working class, the middle class, and the wealthy.
These divisions make it harder for people to come together to work for the common good. There are some politicians who shamelessly act in the interest of their voter bases with little regard for those outside their bases, and there are also people who are suspicious of even well-intended proposals since there may be hidden motives behind them.