communities have the ability to create community sized low impact transit systems. I think that there is a lot more room for paths and pedestrian/cycle routes and facilities.
The Riverfont Trail in KC has an elevator to a bridge that crosses over 8 tracks of UPac, BNSF, KCSouthern railways. We need more community influence against entities that sequester public spaces and natural pathways for communities like rail easements(for rail with trail) and levees.

We need more safe routes to school built into communities and that implies both design and re-design. We need evacuation routes for community disaster evacuation. We need traffic flow designed for neighborhood electric vehicles and more cyclists both electric bike and adult trikes for the aging population. Most trips are less than three miles, why not design the street system for vehicles appropriate for that task?

Rail can link communities, there is nothing wrong with thinking of systems from the bottom up. I suspect achieving sustainability starts with that approach.