I would disagree. Public transportation isn't cheap either if you're not a student or have a company sponsor, in some cases even more expensive than having a car.
I didn't claim it was 'cheap'. I wrote that people can afford it in the same way people can afford a car and that other concerns are often more important.
It surely is a problem and not everyone lives in the city center or in a nearby street with a public transport stop.
Then there is the whole issue with timetables once one gets a few km away from city center, with only one connection per hour between 7 AM and 8 PM, for anything else there are taxis.
Not every location in Europe is Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan,...
In Europe in general affordability of public transport is not the problem so I don't expect that decreasing prices will have a big effect on use.