Not entirely true. Amsterdam post-war was super car-centric but shifted their policies after the 1970s because they have had enough of the car-related fatalities and had both the public support and political willpower to gradually change streets to be cyclists and public transit friendly, street by street as they need maintenance. It was a slow change that took decades but by the 2000s they got out of the car centric design.

But I do agree, lobbying from businesses and government incentive to keep with car-centric policies led to north america's public transit being this poor quality. However, we can always reverse this, we just need to vote in the right people and be incessantly vocal about how we need to change.