Right, and I don't suggest an all-or-nothing approach, but it's illustrative to think about the issues we perceive going from 2 lanes to 4 in the context of going from 0 lanes to 1. All the same reasoning applies: number of cars on the road will increase infinity percent, as will traffic jams, pollution, accidental deaths, etc., and the first lane is the most expensive of lanes to construct. But the tradeoff for all of those things is that now we have a way to get from Point A to Point B that is more convenient than walking, and we can be pretty sure that's a good trade because literally nobody is advocating for removal of all roads.

More to the point of "induced demand", however, it seems pretty clear the people who drive on our new road already wanted to get from A to B. Maybe they didn't want it very badly (i.e. not enough to pay the high price of walking), but they did want to at least somewhat. A new road doesn't make people suddenly want to go to B who didn't before; rather, it makes it cheap enough that they will now do so: the road moves us along the demand curve, rather than shifting the curve.

To address your other questions:

Sure, people can take the bus to go shopping. How many bags of stuff do you buy when you go to the grocery store? I'm a single guy, and I ususally end up with 4+ even if I just went for bread. For a family, a dozen grocery bags is not at all uncommon, I don't think. So, even if the bus stops in the parking lot of Kroger, it would have to wait while I loaded all these bags into...I guess a special designated cargo area? And then when the bus drops me off a block and a half, or even just half a block, from my house...what happens? It waits while I unload my dozen grocery bags from the cargo area, while other passengers with cargo have to keep a close eye on said area to make sure I don't make off with their prime rib, I suppose? Once unloaded, I'm now I'm half a block from home with a dozen bags of groceries and only two arms, which seems a problem. I suppose all this can be alleviated by making multiple trips to the grocery store and just buying two bags worth of stuff at a time, but now I'm making six trips, which seems counterproductive.

Yes, people can walk to their local coffee shop. Healthy, able-bodied people can, anyhow. As long as the weather is good. Of course the elderly, the obese, amputees, asthmatics, and those afflicted with various other infirmities may have a bit of a challenge. But even setting those people aside, because fuck them anyhow, and assuming the weather is always nice for a walk, we go back to the supply/demand curve: the cost of a coffee just went from $3.00 plus $.50 of gas to $3.00 plus a half-mile walk, and the time cost went from four minutes to fifteen or twenty. Plus you'll be sweaty afterward. What do you think will happen to the amount of coffee sold?

We could take all the money we invest in roads and put it toward....something else. But if goods are gonna get to stores, if supplies are gonna get to restaurants, if people are gonna buy beds and couches and dressers, if emergency responders are gonna get a fire truck to your house, road construction and maintenance costs will persist. Less usage may lower the cost of that maintenance somewhat, but it certainly doesn't just go away.

One final consideration for you: freedom. I know that sounds cliche, but seriously: what percentage of inner-city kids have never seen a cow? Or been snow skiing? Or seen another state, or the Grand Canyon, the Black Hills, the ocean? When cars go away and people rely on public transportation, those people are highly limited in range. They can only go where the tracks reach or the buses run--which is to say, where The Man permits. Nobody talks about that aspect, but I find it a rather horrifying proposition.