A lot. The US is easily 50 years behind most of the rest of the OECD. Not that anyone in the US noticed.

In France, you can get from anywhere to anywhere by some combination of bus, train, subway, tram or ferry.

In the US, this is simply not true. And not just for very rural places like you mention, but damn near every urban/suburban/exurban area as well.

Incidentally, if you all were looking for exhibit  a in what the resident German conservative, Martin, was calling Salon Socialism, this is it.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill