The average cost of car ownership is somewhere around $10k/year (from AAA). That buys a lot of extra stuff in a higher COL area (but no, it's won't close the e

The average cost of car ownership is somewhere around $10k/year (from AAA). That buys a lot of extra stuff in a higher COL area (but no, it's won't close the entire gap between a rural town and SV or NYC). In addition to cutting car ownerships costs borne by residents, there are savings at the community level. Less road maintenance, less real estate used for parking (and put to better economic use), etc. Very few people want to literally ban cars at neighbrhood/town scale. Most just want them de-emphasized, with certain roads closed/redeveloped for foot/bike/transit.