widespread car reliance precludes HSR being useful. current urban design and planning causes car reliance. cities need to be rebuilt, first and foremost, to:
1) have major amenities and necessities (food, housing, entertainment, and to some extent office/industrial space, etc) walkable or bikeable (especially bikeable) in "hubs" / central places
2) have transit "spokes" connecting these to the center city and to one another
then we can have HSR that actually means something. what's the point in constructing transit nobody's going to use since they're more used to driving and driving is easier, since either way you'd have to drive to the central station?
edit: looks like mikemat already mentioned this, +1 to them