And have them run on a regular schedule, within and between cities. Imagine the benefit to the public and the environment. It could even be funded by tax payers.

We used to have that in the flatter parts of Ohio (which is ~most of it), with street cars, and interurban lines linking many of even the tiniest towns together, and with passenger rail between larger cities.

It was privately-funded. It worked.

...until the automobile became more common and people stopped started driving cars instead. (The literal-conspiracy between General Motors and Firestone Tire didn't help, either.)

Here's a map from 1908: https://curtiswrightmaps.com/product/electric-railway-map-of...