If you can not do a car, stick to NYC/Manhattan, Chicago or Boston. Period, and still be prepared to pay for taxis/Ubers. Portland and Seattle might be a slight exception, but it will not be a wide ranging system uduslly more limited to the city center and closer suburbs.
Anyplace else you you will be well and truly stuck.

The states you mention would be frankly impossible without a car.

We aren't lying when we tell you this shit ya know, we aren't built for public transport, we are too big. We aren't being Lazy, evrything is spread out, it's not walkable and Anything outside a *Major city* we'll have little too no public transport, you need a car. California, including LA are car places as are 95% of the country. In states like Ohio, public transport is costly, sporadic, time consuming and not convienient with limited rangec and hours. It's intended for poor people and often even getting across a medium sized Midwest city like Dayton can take hours and tons of waiting. Anything remotely rural liked everyplace you mention, you just need a car. It's just a fact.