This sums up most of the issues raised in this thread. Its not expected that everyone walk 40km to the shopping centre. Its expected that you don't go to a shopping centre that's 40km away and instead live close to what is important and shop locally.

And how do you propose to relocate all of these people to live in that urban paradise of yours, where they walk to anything and everything? Are you even going to ask them if they want to? Not everybody wants to live in a big city and values the same conveniences as you do.

In the same way you relocated them out of cities when cars became common. Slowly and over an extended period of time.

It's a non-answer, and in any case these people never were relocated "out of" cities. They never lived there, and don't want to.

Not hardly, loads of these small rural communities predate automobiles and didn't have a train stop. These communities sprang up to support local farming and ranching in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Maybe if the big cities didn't rely so heavily on things made on farms and ranches, like cotton, grains, and livestock, less people would be inclined to live out there.

Knowing those types, they love the rural life and wouldn't want to live in the big city, with all its big city problems.