It's not difficult to imagine a situation in which someone does not /strictly/ need a car (it also seems urban life is quite common these days). It should also be extremely easy to imagine having a car as extremely beneficial.
Interurban rails and other form of mass transit gained prominence especially in the early 20th century. They were eventually outcompeted by cars on a wide variety of factors, including public support for funding of roads.
It's not too difficult to imagine freight traveling on streetcar rails.
(Up to not seeing "the car" as a life changing revolution... Reading just recently the first pages of a history text, the car was immediately mentioned as "expanding the possibilities for movement to unimaginable heights even for the richest of fifty years before". It has always been very clearly a most prominent gift of engineering, as if a third dotation of natural limbs: it's odd to now read about it as "negligible".)
The car is simply not as viable without proper infrastructure and implicit subsidies.
> It's not too difficult to imagine freight traveling on streetcar rails
So? What do you mean, what is your conclusion from that?
You wrote that «we don't need ... cars». I wrote that you don't "need" (much) heating either, relevantly to impact, but the impact on quality of life can be massive. Try performing intellectual (reduced motion, in general) activities in the cold. Try buying groceries without a car when living in a very low density, non urbanized area. Maybe you don't care about the advantages of a car: to others they are vital.
> The car is simply not as viable without proper infrastructure and implicit subsidies
So? What do you mean?
You dismissed the car as expendable, I noted that it has been called an historical revolution with a massive impact in the quality of one's life, for good.
Interurban rails and other form of mass transit gained prominence especially in the early 20th century. They were eventually outcompeted by cars on a wide variety of factors, including public support for funding of roads.
It's not too difficult to imagine freight traveling on streetcar rails.
(Up to not seeing "the car" as a life changing revolution... Reading just recently the first pages of a history text, the car was immediately mentioned as "expanding the possibilities for movement to unimaginable heights even for the richest of fifty years before". It has always been very clearly a most prominent gift of engineering, as if a third dotation of natural limbs: it's odd to now read about it as "negligible".)
The car is simply not as viable without proper infrastructure and implicit subsidies.