I strongly suggest visiting a city with good public transit, when cities follow good design almost all of your issues become moot.
Your experience is obviously about North American car dependent cities, which have all the issues you mention, but it definitely is not that way everywhere. Europe, Asia, and some cities or parts of cities in North America have great public transit that is more convenient and faster than driving.
Having a solution where cars drive people everywhere is definitely not a universally better system. Sprawl and car-centric design makes other (and in many people’s opinion) more pleasant forms of transportation difficult.
For example there are many dense cities and towns where you can find (almost) every amenity within a 3 minute walk: grocery store, barber, bar, cafe, school, etc. Obviously there are some trade-offs, and some people may prefer to live in less dense areas, but that is easily achievable within 10-15 min walking distance to those amenities while still being very car accessible
> I strongly suggest visiting a city with good public transit
I live in one. What you are talking about is fantasy. I'm German and live in a large city.
The reality of it is that within the city I just walk everywhere, because taking the tram isn't worth it for small errands. Neither in time nor in money.
When I need to travel to a different state, using public transit is awful. It doesn't only need to be decent in one city. It needs to be decent across the whole country. Because if it is not, I still need a car. And when I have a car, I might as well use it, since it's more convenient.
Your experience is obviously about North American car dependent cities, which have all the issues you mention, but it definitely is not that way everywhere. Europe, Asia, and some cities or parts of cities in North America have great public transit that is more convenient and faster than driving.
Having a solution where cars drive people everywhere is definitely not a universally better system. Sprawl and car-centric design makes other (and in many people’s opinion) more pleasant forms of transportation difficult.
For example there are many dense cities and towns where you can find (almost) every amenity within a 3 minute walk: grocery store, barber, bar, cafe, school, etc. Obviously there are some trade-offs, and some people may prefer to live in less dense areas, but that is easily achievable within 10-15 min walking distance to those amenities while still being very car accessible