https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/highway-interchange-ho...
Our cities were designed to be spread out to make them less susceptible to atomic weapons in the 1950's (not a joke).
So... Yes, we need cars. It really is a long way for many of us.
I agree that very common suburban and rural vehicles, respectively, are SUVs and pickup trucks. But I am curious what portion of urban drivers use a vehicle that most of the time far outclasses their average use case. I would like to find data on this but it seems to me like often people own a vehicle for the extreme outlier use case.
It's like condoms - better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Sometimes someone dies as an immediate result, and for some it means waiting for another 5 minutes.