kiddo

Like what?

I don't think it has much to do with population growth. I think it has more to do with planning in advance where you want your growth to be. In the US we just let developers put new houses pretty much wherever they want, which turns out to be where land is cheap, which is usually far from existing developments. In Europe the govt has more direct involvement and only allows development to happen where they want it to happen.

Baltimore has a master plan for bike lanes: http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/planning/bikeplan.p...

And Baltimore has a bicycle club: http://www.baltobikeclub.org/

The club is probably an advocate for the bike lanes. Lend your support and I'm sure you'll get your better commuting conditions.

Try traveling those routes on a holiday weekend when traffic on the highways is barely moving. Even without heavy road traffic, though, the train is faster. Plus you can get up and walk around on the train, there's more legroom, and food service.

Transportation costs my be cheap now, but consider what would happen if fuel prices rose or the cost of containing the pollution produced through the transportation increased.

New Urbanists aren't saying yards are a waste of precious urban land. They don't really even say urban land is "precious". They mostly just think living in closer proximity to others is good for the economy, the environment and people's social lives.