Yeah, and part of the reason many American cities are car dependent hellscapes is because they ripped out earlier public transit in exchange for “more individual freedom” in the form of being forced to pilot multi-ton death machines through heavy traffic to get to anything that isn’t more houses. (Yes, I am aware that this is a case of hindsight being 20/20, and the people who did that didn’t know all the things we know now and thus were extraordinarily myopic, but many European cities (including Amsterdam IIRC) did similar things, but they mostly had the good sense to put it back.)

(To be clear, you are also correct.)