Very much this - and it describes nearly everywhere I lived the first 35 years of life. Apartments, rural communities and smallish cities (50-60k).
The things these have in common were winters (indiana), employers without a decent area to change clothes in, lack of places to safely store a bike, lack of places to safely ride the bike, and a lack of public transportation. Some employers wouldn't hire you if you didn't have reliable transportation (a car) : Even McDonalds inquired about this in the late 90's. One job preffered one to have a vehicle occasionally to take deposits to the bank and get small change for customers. The penalty was crappier work hours because you could not meet business needs. The bank wasn't far away (8-10 blocks) and was in a tiny town (less than 3k people), yet the store was neither busy enough nor in a crime area high enough to qualify for an armored car service.
And that's not to mention things like having to go travel to wash clothes or, like some even smaller towns than the one mentioned above, not having even a convenience store in town to get basic items.
Perhaps pilots should be required to provide their own airplanes? It's ridiculous that the job wants to force their employees to provide their own $20,000 metal box. Perhaps what they want is a contractor, not an employee.
My 35mi commute with no practical public transit options is a requirement.
But also, I have a child, not yet 3. If you're going to say that I shouldn't have a car in this scenario you're either single or uninvolved in the realities of having a child.
I understand that manufacturing batteries has negative externalities. I'd argue that removing myself from the carbon spraying game has immediate impact (we cannot stop ACC now, but we can temper its course), and that's good. Reducing the US's economic incentive to screw with the world's politics to maintain gas prices: also good.
Cars are thoroughly useful, granted. But the frequently-repeated parents claim that its impossible to raise a child without one, are given lie by the fact that millions of folks do it every day.
Green is riding a bike.