those disasters were externalities, which i dont disagree is disheartening, but the personal freedoms and transportation capability given by the personal automobile is worth it. Public transport, even good ones, does not provide this level of comfort and freedom.
Oh god we're going to get a new hellscape of drone noise which we won't be able to get rid of on account of the personal freedom granted by having second rate food delivered five minutes faster.
Cities don't work like that. When you have less traffic, people start to squeeze in (real estate is rarely a limiting factor), and you get more people and more traffic. People want to live densely, and they will.
Really good public transport does, because you're not constrained by having to return to your personal vehicle at the end of whatever you're doing, you're not constrained by its operational or mechanical limits (think: family members who can't drive for reasons of health or young/old age, large groups who won't fit in your car, drinking or other intoxicants that make you unfit, reading a book/resting your brain on the way to or from a long day, households not wanting or affording to own as many vehicles as there are people in their home).
OK, it's not as private or comfortable as your own vehicle, but I'd rather be in public but able to read/dream/listen than in private but having to concentrate on the road. (This of course requires a public transport system which is safe and not full of crazies, I understand that's a problem in those US cities which have it).
Granted, there's only a few dozen cities in the world that do it that well.
Reminds me of an Indian ceremony where they believe cow manure is healthy (maybe it is, I have no clue) and they are walking on it on barefeet or something.
