Time and time again roads…

Time and time again roads are expanded to ease congestion and the results are always the same. A short period where commute times are shorter then they quickly return to pre-expansion times if not longer. This lowly citizen might humbly suggest that there is a pattern here and we should look for an actual solution instead of mindlessly walking into the exact same trap over and over again.
Other countries have already solved this problem, we don't even need to figure out the solution for ourselves. Expanding bike lane coverage to cover more of their home cities, more investment into public transport, rezoning residential neighborhoods to reduce total travel distances. These things have worked in other countries and cities, why wouldn't they work here? Do you believe Canadians are so stupid as to be unable to take a bus or ride a bike? Or are you simply too lazy to do proper research on how to fix traffic?
People always talk about how lovely European cities are, how wonderful Japan and Korea are to visit, so why aren't we trying to make our cities more like the ones which we admire so much? Why are we making our cities less walkable, more noisy and more gray? It this really the type of city we want?