for many people cars are a luxurious convenience. they also enable bad behavior and come at a terrible cost for everyone, including non-drivers. the reasons for

for many people cars are a luxurious convenience. they also enable bad behavior and come at a terrible cost for everyone, including non-drivers. the reasons for this are manifold, but the problem is, that often there are no practical alternatives because we build our society around car dependency. this creates a dependency spiral: it's hard to quit cars, so people don't (even try), and because everyone has cars, we build infrastructure for it. it is possible to get out of it in certain areas, usually cities - but even if one manages, they still have to pay the cost: not just the financial burden, the health problems, but also the reduction in safety (especially for kids) and quality of living. vienna has excellent public transport and the car ownership rate is less than 400 per 1000 inhabitants. of those 400, how many are necessary and how many are just out of convenience? as for my (austrian) country-dwelling extended family: every adult owns their own car, but i'd estimate at least every second car is not strictly necessary.