exactly. and on the other end of the scale, for the short trips, the spread of population means that it's going to be really hard for rail to beat driving. say you live in shelbyville, indiana (suburb of indianapolis) and have relatives living in hamilton, ohio (suburb of cincinnati). that's a 90 minute drive. you could literally have an instant teleporter between indianapolis and cincinnati and it wouldn't be faster or more convenient than driving for anyone but the most centrally-located people in each city.
United States