You need to get to the point A to point B very fast. You have a boat. To do that, you boat would have to have the motor and a propeller behind in order to get fast.
Now imagine what would happen if a fast boat went through the crowded street, right pass passengers.
Imagine walkers having to go across the water highway to get to the other side of the street. They’d need a bridge instead of zebra, and the bridge would have to be specifically designed to deal with both walkers and boats.
Besides that, the road water may get in touch with underground water and sewage, which would only create issues.
Not to mention you’d have to rebuild the cities completely in order to get traveling boats to work.
Water is much tricker than solid ground. Accidents can happen way more easily. One strong wind and your boat can turn over. Rains and storms can create much more ruckus on a boat than in a car. Boats/ships are much more unstable than cars, because they move on much more unstable surface. Again, since no one is crazy to paddle, your boats would need to run on a motor. Hence the inconvenience with power, controlling speed, and the passengers getting an unwanted shower every time some idiot passed on his stupid ass yacht, unless they’re high above the river-road, which again, leads us to complete remodeling of the cities.
Cars spend energy and pollute air, but are much faster, secure and more convenient in everyday use than boats.
Just sayin’ what I came up with. Captain probably knows a lot more about the issue, but I believe boats just aren’t an alternative to cars.
Addition: How would you deal with roads in between two places (Highways, I think they’re caled)? What about private vs public transport? How would emergency services deal with it, for example the ambulance, police, firefighters and similar? How to make a turn at the water-road?
We need dem cars.