A town of 8000 definitely warrants a bus line or two. In addition to inter city buses to nearby towns and cities. I live in what I consider a rural American to

A town of 8000 definitely warrants a bus line or two. In addition to inter city buses to nearby towns and cities. I live in what I consider a rural American town, 10,000 people spread around 200 km² (but US census still considers it urban (!) so you are right about that) and still we get regular bus service from 2 lines and a couple of ferry lines to nearby cities. But to raise the point of your parent home, we do have a car in our driveway ready for our convenience, but a bicycle is actually way handy (especially when coming home from the bar) and then the bus is actually very well used, and has been increasing in frequency over the past decade. It is simply way more convenient to ride the bus to the ferry then drive during commuter hours.