It's like this: when public transit advocates ask why move a ton of metal around per person when literally stuffing them in a train is more efficient, the reason is because we're (in the US) rich enough to not have to pick the most "efficient" solution to every problem. Otherwise we'd be drinking generic Soylent and sleeping in pods instead of eating lush, delicious food and sleeping in houses.
The whole world is going to get there, and you're not going to convince more than a handful of people to voluntarily live like a drone when they don't have to. So we better figure out how to live these non-efficient lifestyles more sustainably.
(EDIT: Yes, I do think that if public transit offers a /better/ service, it has a future. But if it's significantly worse than what people already have, then good luck convincing people to use it.)
