To my knowledge, other developed countries where driving seems really necessary for most people are Canada and Australia, maybe NZ?
Admittedly I'm far from an expert in this, but I live in Germany now, have visited a bunch of countries in Europe, plus Japan, and that's certainly the impression I get. Right now our family of 3 living in a sleepy part of Munich gets by fine without a car, and we've visited lots of little suburbs and towns in Germany that are still highly walkable/bikable, with decent transit connections.
Not that having a car wouldn't be a big convenience bonus for us sometimes, but it doesn't feel critical at all.
I, like about 50% of people living in Vantaa, commute to different city for work. I'm not sure how many of them actually use public transport for commute, but as overall public transport usage is around 50%. I don't think there's big difference between the usage between working within Vantaa or going to different city as that city is usually Helsinki or Espoo.
Commute wise they are all part of same region while legally they are different cities. I don't think that's extremely uncommon arrangement in some larger cities in Europe.
I live in Europe, driving is not needed. You hop on a train or on a bus, although if you have work 100 km away you wouls have some arrangements to live there for some part of the week commuting 100 km daily is unpleasant.
Unless your destination is in some rural village that is not reachable by train/bus, like closest bus stop is 5 km away you don't need a car, it is more convenient sure but not essential.
I have colleagues at work that are from small towns 100+km they rent a flat in the city here and go home on weekends, by train or car.
I said it's barely an issue for most people. Not barely an issue for everyone.
> Try getting to a different province/city etc, easily 30-100km away or more on "public transit".
I seriously considered commuting from Augsburg to Munich by train. Some of my co-workers do this. It's actually not that bad, train ride is about half an hour for 50km. Faster than driving, that's for sure.
Admittedly I'm far from an expert in this, but I live in Germany now, have visited a bunch of countries in Europe, plus Japan, and that's certainly the impression I get. Right now our family of 3 living in a sleepy part of Munich gets by fine without a car, and we've visited lots of little suburbs and towns in Germany that are still highly walkable/bikable, with decent transit connections.
Not that having a car wouldn't be a big convenience bonus for us sometimes, but it doesn't feel critical at all.