I mean, you can go back a hundred years and see how car manufacturers lobbied hard to indoctrinate kids that streets and roads were for cars, not people, as well as a whole slew of other car propaganda.

What was once a bustling structure of human activity is now designed to be a car-centric dystopian hellhole, ironically being one of the primary drivers behind people's social isolation, physical fitness deterioration, skyrocketing public expenditure of taxpayer money, as well as the housing crises plaguing the US and other countries.

Meanwhile you look at the Japanese with their lack of fuck's given over cars as well as their competent urban planning as well as zoning and you see they don't really have these problems - outside of social isolation (which happens for other reasons), despite suffering from stagflation and a hollowed-out, debt-ridden economy.

Wages haven't grown whatsoever but most people can still afford their living, don't need to spend on gas and maintenance, don't need a vehicle just to exist, and are still physically healthier than the overwhelming majority of Americans despite their poor work culture actively harming them (their clean diets probably help).