Perth is the longest city in the world (apparently) because of urban sprawl. The article is exactly right in that the city is entirely dependant of being able to travel from work to home and that commute is both ling and decentralised.

In my completely uneducated opinion if there was affordable high density housing around business areas, or if commercial/industrial areas were more uniformly spread amongst the suburban housing then public transport and other methods (such as cycling) would be more viable options (when commutes arent so rediculously far).