The obsession with driving is not the problem. Most of our larger cities predate the automobile, and as such they are NOT designed for cars. Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to find a place to park downtown? A streetcar could take you downtown and you wouldn't have to find 500 sq.feet of space to leave your car. I tend to agree that rail travel is a hard sell for inter-city travel. In town though, a streetcar makes sense on many levels. A streetcar or LRV can move more people than most forms of transportation,even buses. Electric power means no exhaust fumes in the close quarters presented by major cities. A single operator can run a train of 4 or more LRVs presenting a cost savings . Electric traction has come a long way from the "Cutting edge" technology of the PCC car.

Most cities got rid of rail for a number of reasons. Streetcars were , for the most part, operated as for profit businesses. Those businesses were bound by charters requiring street maintenance where their cars ran as well as taxes on the property the rail were laid on. Cars could use the roads for free. The charters also bound the operators to fares that could not be raised without approval from a governing body. With the introduction of the automobile the profitability of the operation dropped and caused those businesses to go away. The space available in the city didn't change though and as more cars came into use traffic jams became a fact of life. Most downtown areas entered a period of blight because the convenience of doing business downtown went away.

There is a DVD out titled "This was Pacific Electric" (Skycityproductions.com) that says it better than I can. Well worth a watch, Not your typical Railfan DVD.