People did have children and they lived in cities before suburbs were developed in the 1940s and 1950s, though, so it has to be possible.
That is wrong I think. Inner London for instance still hasn't recovered the population level that it had in the 1930's. There are also videos that show a lot of traffic, and huge numbers of pedestrians. Go back another 30-50 years and most of the traffic would have been horse-drawn carts, which means enormous amounts of excrement, and extreme levels of noise, because before the invention of pneumatic tires wheels were metal on stone.
The first suburbs were enabled by trains, not cars, and were developed and promoted by the railway company.