This is just a quick idea, it can be expanded apon or whatever just wanted to get it out there. Also sorry about the typeos, I simply dont care enough to go through and fix them all lol.
I think it is hard for new cities to grow and gain traction. One way I think it could be fixed is buses between private towns. Course these could be monorails, bike trails, heck they can be rickshaws for all I care. I think there should be bus “Terminals” that all the buses go to. From the terminal you can chose a city to be teleported to. At said city there could be a smaller terminal that only teleports you back to the main terminal or mabey smaller surrounding cities. One reason small cities cant take off is no one wants to have to travel there. Each city can build their terminal how they like and it can be much less regulated compared to airports and the like. There would obviously have to be rules like bieng active and whatever. Just an idea to further even the playing field.
This has been my ted talk, goodbye. 