I think the UK's Cars good Trains bad attitude goes back of the 70's and 80's and the fight against the unions, At the time the car industry was the biggest employer in the UK. If your car workers went on strike it didn't really hurt anyone apart from the car workers (and a few associated industries) if your railway workers went on strike, the whole country could grind to a halt relatively quickly. to keep employment high the theory was to push a car based lifestyle.

If this is right then once again we are looking at messing ourselves up by trying to deal with the percieved economic problems of thirty years ago, now.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.