I think Japan's metropolitan zoning has some merits over the US/CA models. It just seems like here in the US we chose cars over street cars too soon and forced everyone to homogenize neighborhoods going forward. The idea of a mixed use zoning seems like a smart solution among other things we can try here in the US to clamp down on what I call "concrete hell."
Also, I believe the US Army wanted an interstate highway system to use in place of the rail network. So there were many stakeholders that brought us this car centric landscape into existence.
