I agree with fear, and offer you an additional fear that I and those around me are very familiar with:

Cars bring “reliable transportation” to our doorstep, granting us the freedom to be employed at jobs that don’t care if the bus is late or the metro had an issue…you appear at work or be penalized.

Worse is the way shifts and callouts are handled today…my shifts are in different times in different days…there is no consistency in order to be “fair” to all employees. And if someone is sick, many places require you to find someone willing to drop everything and cover, or face penalties.

I don’t live in an area with major public transit. We have roads and cars and a couple of county circular buses.

I used to know a guy who needed that bus for work. He had a disability that meant he would never be able to drive, and that bus was his only option. He was late for work more than once because the bus was late. In times of weather or holidays he would ride the route that left him unpaid at work hours too early, and/or stuck long after shift waiting for the bus. Perhaps this could have been solved with more busses, or if he could find a job that would take him closer to home, or someone to carpool with, but it didn’t work out like that and within a year he was let go. Disability protection didn’t protect him from “not having reliable transportation”, which was the excuse they gave to dodge complaints but frankly as an At-Will state they didn’t really need it. He failed to meet the job requirements by not being in control of his transport and that was enough to end his job.

Car access gave people the freedom to travel freely and meet the demands of employers also built on car culture. Now we have the “freedom” to work inconsistent hours, suddenly as needed, or leave early to cut costs as desired, and be penalized because our travel is within our control.