The world before cars was completely awful. Especially in rural areas where the majority of the population lived. It wasn't uncommon for people to live their en

The world before cars was completely awful. Especially in rural areas where the majority of the population lived. It wasn't uncommon for people to live their entire lives only ever travelling a few miles from their home. Most people were forced to obtain goods from country stores. These had a very small selection of items and set monopoly prices with ridiculous markups. They also required haggling over everything and let their customers go into great debt with them. These went away with the car because people could travel much greater distances to competing stores. The car massively improved the standard of living. Cities weren't much better. Streets were completely covered in horse shit. Horses were also much more expensive and difficult to maintain than cars. The car made that kind of freedom of transportation affordable to average people. Sure there were trains. But you still have to travel too and from the train station which wasn't convenient. And the train is a monopoly as well.