[Procrastinational]

Having lived in the States, I think it definitely boils down to there being a huge stigma attached to buses (unlike Canada). In the States, the middle-class and up will generally gladly take commuter rail, light rail transit, etc, but buses are seen as the exclusive domain of the working-poor. VERY few people in the States with the means to own a car take the bus.

Seeing as most of the people spending decent amounts of money at malls are middle class and up, it is not necessary or desirable in the States from a mall's perspective to have good bus access.

I don't mean it in a bad way, but it's definitely a way of keeping the "riff-raff" out. One needs to keep in mind there are much larger, firmly established class and race divisions in the States.

Even in Boston, which has an excellent public transit network, no one likes the buses. That's the biggest difference I noticed between Vancouver and Boston. Vancouver buses are seen as an important feeder part of the network, whereas in Boston, most people commuting to downtown from the suburbs drive to the terminus station of one of the subway lines, and park in one of the many large parking structures that exist at each one.