The problem isn't barriers to being a pedestrian. It's alternate forms of transit not existing. My town barely has bus service. The nearest stop is over a mile away, and it has a frequency, in theory, of hourly. I live in town. The bus route sorta serves the historically poor section of town and that's about it. Having a car is not optional. We don't have a functional long distance rail network, never mind light rail or subways.
It sounds like your town does have a serious deficiency, but that deficiency is not a shortage of car infrastructure. It seems like it needs much more transit.
The money for transit needs to come from land values (capturing the increase to land values that the transit creates). Ticket revenue can never fund a transit system.
This is how train networks the world over were built, with train companies buying up land and then developing or leasing it out after their railways made it valuable. It's how successful transit companies operate in Asia and remain profitable, building shopping malls and hotels on and around their stations.
It doesn't require population density (that comes after the development), it doesn't require government support (although it helps, especially if the government is subsidizing roads), but it does require investment and long-term planning.
