Comment by JoeBOFH

The US takes this to an entirely different level.

In places like Vegas, even on days with great weather, trying to WALK 2-3km in residential areas is a nightmare.

People who are "pushing an agenda" aren't arguing that there should be no cars ever, anywhere. Cars are the smallest-scale form of long-distance transport, they are unavoidable in low-density areas or for services that requires complete flexibility. All the agenda-pushers I've seen in real life are just saying that there's better options within cities, at least for a lot of people. Most of the time, most people only move within their cities, myself included. If transit within my city was in any way adequate, I would choose it over the car. I could cover those rare out-of-city edge cases with rentals or train travel.

Besides, it's not even the same in Europe. In a few countries, maybe, but in the majority the inter-city transit or transit within small towns is not even in the same universe as what's available in most of the US.

A massive chunk (if not majority?) of those top 20 metro areas are largely car dependent for most of their populations. Large areas don't have any public transit at all, and the rest is often designed to be actively hostile to pedestrians.

Try living without a car in these places, all in the 4th largest MSA.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mHmGidZRJaKptHeL8

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5P4mW5iM6b5ab9Ve7

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JCiBgESKs5ZWqGny8

https://maps.app.goo.gl/E1iVwLCB28ooGhQL9

These are all in "urban" areas and a part of DFW. But how about Houston, the 5th?

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7yEAimERmyE1EGde6

https://maps.app.goo.gl/UKSQjPqifWUSv82H7

I don't know how one would even get groceries without a car.

And even then, you're then talking about less than 1/3 of Americans living in that mostly car dependent space.

And _not_ living in one of the top 20 metro areas is also hardly an edge case.