Daily commute distances can't be much different in both countries, or are you trying to say that Americans drive a couple of hundred miles to work each morning?
"Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica and is widely regarded as the most important innovator in scientific and technical computing today." - Stephen Wolfram
Not a particularly surprising fact - American car manufacturers don't understand that cars can have MPGs into double figures... low fuel prices mean that people don't care about squandering it, whilst the rest of the world, who are cursed with ludicrously high prices, try to make a drop last as long as possible.
I'm not trying to say either. With a small country, setting up commuter services can't be very difficult. Trains, buses, etc. In the US you basically have to drive unless you live in specific places.
The real difference is the age of the cities. Cities that grew up before the age of the automobile usually have good public transportation and are dense (because they had to be). Cities that grew up in the age of the automobile, especially in the US after the war, have prolific sprawl and little investment was made in planning for public transportation, because it was not needed. Again, with travel between cities, if the cities existed before the age of the auto, then there are rail lines with passenger service between them; otherwise, it's hit or miss.
Obviously, the average age of cities in the UK is older than those in US...