Car-dependent Americans have such myopic vision that they can't see that investment to improve cycling and mass transit infrastructure actually improves the driving experience dramatically.
From my grandparents village to the district capital in a Portuguese countryside region, there is a bus coming twice a day, once in each direction.
If you don't want to lose a whole day just to go to town, either own a car or better be wealthy enough to pay for a 20km taxi ride (X2).
Most people won't cycle in a mountain region where temperatures in August are 40° C on average, nor do they possess the health to do so.
Plenty of European regions are just as deplected of good city with wonderful public transport networks, specially on the southern countries where the people love to spend their vacations and end up renting cars if they actually want to move around in a timely manner.
