The point I'm trying to make is that my city does indeed have many of those problems you mention...it's not all that different from many American cities. I thi

The point I'm trying to make is that my city does indeed have many of those problems you mention...it's not all that different from many American cities. I think it's better than average in that zoning seems to have allowed a little more neighborhood type shopping options, some multi-use paths, a mixed-use downtown, and multi-family dwellings, but it's not Manhattan. Public transit is nearly non-existent, plenty of big box stores, shopping centers, downtown parking lots, etc. Living here without owning a car at all would be extremely limiting. And yet, biking could be a perfectly viable transit option without changing most of those factors if there was just more bike infrastructure. You wouldn't get the full hierarchy, as you said, but you could very realistically have more options than just driving.