"1) avg. distance goods travel by truck is much lower and 2) you have a functional mass transit AND inter-city transit system"
That does make a lot of sense.
yeah, the first time i was in england i realized that driving from london to northumbria was a good chunk of the way out of the populated part of the island (assuming i count glasglow/edinburg as the practical limit), yet a similar time/distance wouldn't get me from miami to out of florida at an point. avg distance for goods in the UK must be like 25% or less than for the US.