What was novel to me but seemingly obvious now that it's been pointed out is how the introduction of cars and highways created a vast oversupply of usable land

What was novel to me but seemingly obvious now that it's been pointed out is how the introduction of cars and highways created a vast oversupply of usable land that previously wasn't practical to build on because workers had no way to get to their city jobs, and that's a big part of why housing was so cheap after WWII. Perhaps the lesson here is that if we want affordable housing, we need better forms of high-volume transportation that can move people rapidly between city centers and distant under-developed outskirts.