At least in the US I can see a reasonable argument for most people needing to drive, but it's much less obvious people need to drive the vehicles they do the way that they do to meet basic transportation requirements. One obvious if almost certainly unpopular solution would be to have the basic drivers license you get now with essentially no effort only cover small speed limited cars that would pose far less risk to everyone else on the road. If you want or need something larger or faster, require a separate license with testing, experience, and re-certification requirements in-line with the extra responsibility operating such a vehicle should involve. You abuse that even a little, back to a GPS speed limited Corolla hatchback you go.
This addresses the issue with a lack of driving alternative while also addressing the cases where people need more than basic transportation. But I guarantee people would lose their minds and start setting fire to their local DMV if such a change were even theoretically proposed. Because the problem with car culture in the US (and elsewhere) isn't that driving is a necessity, it's that being a driver comes with such a massive sense of unearned entitlement that any restrictions at all for any reason are treated as a massive violation of God given rights. Even attempts to enforce existing laws are met with absurd levels of hostility, like the opposition to red light or speed cameras.
I say this as someone who likes driving and likes cars, but as someone who is also a private pilot, the reason we don't have a driving safety culture like we have a flying safety culture is that the absolute worst possible example of an unsafe pilot you could imagine is basically the average driver. And not only is that driving behavior accepted in a way it never would be in the aviation community, but it's treated as an unassailable right.
They see it as an "entitlement", because that's how society works. Don't want to drive and you will immediately start to experience discrimination, including microaggressions (no it's not like being the victim of racial oppression, just another way wind up in an outgroup).
The REALITY that I think is still being ignored in this thread is we don't rely on planes for our day to day travel, on average. I'm never going to need to hop in a plane just to eat, make it to work, or meet my friends.
I don't think it's "an entitlement" to want food, to get to work, and not be treated as a burdensome freak. To the vast vast majority of people, even frequent business travelers, flying is for occasional long distance travel, never for day to day activities.
If we really get to the point where non-driving is treated equally to driving, I might agree. However this seems exceedingly unlikely and is incredibly expensive. It would require me to be able to get around as a non-driver with the same cost and convenience. This turns out not to be economically feasible.
This addresses the issue with a lack of driving alternative while also addressing the cases where people need more than basic transportation. But I guarantee people would lose their minds and start setting fire to their local DMV if such a change were even theoretically proposed. Because the problem with car culture in the US (and elsewhere) isn't that driving is a necessity, it's that being a driver comes with such a massive sense of unearned entitlement that any restrictions at all for any reason are treated as a massive violation of God given rights. Even attempts to enforce existing laws are met with absurd levels of hostility, like the opposition to red light or speed cameras.
I say this as someone who likes driving and likes cars, but as someone who is also a private pilot, the reason we don't have a driving safety culture like we have a flying safety culture is that the absolute worst possible example of an unsafe pilot you could imagine is basically the average driver. And not only is that driving behavior accepted in a way it never would be in the aviation community, but it's treated as an unassailable right.