That was my first reaction ... does it simulate having a federal executive that randomly cancels your funding? A nonzero chance that the local authority demands you cooperate with the "personal rapid transit" huckster?

well it would be interesting to compare european and american cities wrt. population density and building costs. the claim is that american cities are not dense enough to be worth while. in a simulation you could set the parameters so that you can specifically look at the population density as a factor.