@Hypocrisy_Central Quite so. And outside of the US, many consider it a basic human right. But the greatest nation on Earth is so great and luxurious that even human rights are luxuries.
I basically view this question as, “What life necessities are you willing to give up in order to afford other life necessities?”. As 98% of my driving is either to work, to get food, or for medical care, I do not see vehicle ownership as a luxury. Maybe if you have a fancy car or a personal fleet, but one basic car per working adult is pretty much a minimal requirement. If you are lucky enough the get the work schedules to line up right, or multiple people in the household have the same employer, you might be able to get away with fewer, but like I said earlier, I personally haven’t lived near any of my jobs in a long time. (And no, moving isn’t an option; the shorter my commute is, the longer my wife’s commute is.)
Now, if I have to pay more to drive to the job that provides the insurance that makes being hauled to the ER cost only a few hundred dollars rather than over fourteen thousand dollars, then odds are that I will wind up dropping the health insurance in order to pay for driving to work to make rent in the first place.
If one really wanted to reduce the amount of traffic and the number of cars on the road, mass transit won’t help much. Half of all Americans have commutes longer than 10 miles each way. Seattle has it a bit worse You can’t tackle this issue with transportation changes; you need fundamental changes in how employment and residency work. Maybe arcologies where everyone works “at home”... though that has it’s own issues.