Please take a moment to read this article regarding suburban sprawl, housing market depressions and the need for public transportation to connect walkable urban neighborhoods; specifically through privately funded endeavors. Here\'s a great historical piece of insight:

In the early 20th century, every town of more than 5,000 people was served by streetcars, even though real household income was one-third what it is today. By 1920, metropolitan Los Angeles had the longest street-railway network in the world. Atlanta’s rail system was accessible to nearly all residents. Until 1950, our grandparents and great-grandparents did not need a car to get around, since they could rely upon various forms of rail transit. A hundred years ago, the average household spent only 5 percent of its income on transportation.

How did the country afford that extensive rail system? Real-estate developers, sometimes aided by electric utilities, not only built the systems but paid rent to the cities for the rights-of-way.

There are some obvious concerns for such an undertaking but the article does a good job of showing how it has worked in the past and how it could work currently with a little progressive forward movement.

Via Eli.