I think this also has to do with EU cities being much older, and "grew up" prior to automobiles even existing/being wide-spread. American cities/sprawls are designed around the automobile (and maybe some sick idea of "the american dream" pushed by early industrialists)
You are correct but there are also plenty of case studies in automobile-dependent cities that went all-in on transit, but that was usually due to a crushing and unbearable level of crowding thats simply not legal in any US city.
