I think you are overestimating the amount of jobs that can be done remotely.
Things that can never be done remotely: agriculture, construction, manufacture, hospitality, a big part of health/elder care, a big part of education, anything that requires expensive equipment (research, ...), artists/shows/events, the list goes on.
A lot of these sectors were either closed or running slow during COVID, which was not sustainable (you can't maintain the purchasing power of an entire population for decades if suddenly half of it stops working - it only works for a short while if you expect to be able to repay the debt you incurred to keep non-working people afloat).
So even if every single person that can work remotely does so, still expect big cities with transportation issues.
And that's without counting all the jobs that can be done remotely but are better done in office.
Most US cities need a small critical mass only to kickstart good [amazing!? okay, passable] public transport.
Urbanization is still in full force, cities are growing. (Even if COVID put a dip in the graph.)
Sure, the number one problem is density, but the US is ridiculously rich enough to support enough buses doing the rounds.
Agriculture is not causing congestion. (The rare combine on the rural road leading a queue is the exception.)
Construction is also a small part of the overall traffic. (Especially with more and more prefab happening around the world.)
Manufacturing, sure, production lines need operators, engineers, etc. Yet at the same time (speaking from experience) about half of the staff could do remote.
> So even if every single person that can work remotely does so, still expect big cities with transportation issues.
No questions there, but as I said a few sentences back, the peak is the problem. The upkeep (maintenance costs) for a transit network that can serve X number of people all commuting at the same time (in the same direction) is basically double than a network for half (or ~80%) of that demand.
Not to go into each of your counter-examples, but while some of them can't be done remotely today, surely we can get there.
Eg. how far away are we from having remote-controlled tractors and combine-harvesters? Sure, get them home into a garage when they need servicing.
Hospitality? There are places which, especially in the first pandemic year, have gone all hands-off (eg. get a token to access a property on your check-in without talking to anyone).
But rather than can we, I think the point should be should we? There's a psychological cost to working with people you've never met personally, never hanged around with... And some people will struggle to get any social activity happening in their lives without work.
I've worked remotely for 15+ years, but I don't think it's for everybody, or for anybody all the time.
People going to places is no the problem. The problem is the peak demand. (Eg. usual commute. Rush hour.)
It'd be much much better if people were spending all that fuel on traveling with friends to anywhere else. (Or just going to events/festivals.)
...
That said remote work without any IRL interaction is definitely psychologically unhealthy. But! Doing a twice monthly sprint rollover or whatever means a qualitatively different kind of transit than the daily commute.
You understand that agriculture didn't shut down because farmers couldn't sit on their tractors and pull equipment, but because nobody was buying the product they were producing, right?
Things that can never be done remotely: agriculture, construction, manufacture, hospitality, a big part of health/elder care, a big part of education, anything that requires expensive equipment (research, ...), artists/shows/events, the list goes on.
A lot of these sectors were either closed or running slow during COVID, which was not sustainable (you can't maintain the purchasing power of an entire population for decades if suddenly half of it stops working - it only works for a short while if you expect to be able to repay the debt you incurred to keep non-working people afloat).
So even if every single person that can work remotely does so, still expect big cities with transportation issues.
And that's without counting all the jobs that can be done remotely but are better done in office.