The omni-presence of cars in US is from "command and control" through laws and the legal system, and in particular the planning system. Our planning system mand

The omni-presence of cars in US is from "command and control" through laws and the legal system, and in particular the planning system. Our planning system mandates all sorts of things about the built infrastructure that a purely market based society would not choose on its own. This sort of command and control mandates the exact number of parking spaces required for a shoe store versus a bowling alley, versus any other type of land use. In nearly all of the US it is literally illegal to build out infrastructure with out prioritizing cars and car infrastructure over everything. This was a political choice that we made, as we do live in a representative democracy.