[Cirrus]

The author quoted by OP is seriously wrong on multiple counts. First of all, it is not anything close to "accepted wisdom" that light rail should be everywhere. Every single city it's proposed in always faces a major battle for that first line. Secondly, his supposition that because we have spread out cities now we mustn't ever plan for anything else is simply wrong. He doesn't seem to understand that transportation guides land use.

At a very basic level he is correct that we shouldn't presuppose light rail as a panacea to all urban ills. That might be an interesting point, if anybody were doing that. No one is.

Now, if you'd like to talk about whether light rail as a cheaper regional metro is the right way to go (as opposed to say, a model favoring a combination of regional commuter rail and local streetcars), *that* would be a useful discussion. Personally, I do think that commuter rail + streetcars would be better in many cities than the hybrid LRT lines they are building. Alas, the author cited by OP doesn't seem on that level of sophistication.