[CaptSpify]

I think location is also a big factor here. I've lived in multiple parts of the US, and most of it is simply designed against walking. I enjoy taking casual walks, but when I lived in the midwest, I had to drive to a park to walk. There were no sidewalks, and the streets were dangerous for pedestrians (lots of blind curves, speeding cars, etc). It always frustrated me that I had to take a vehicle to go for a walk.

[panglott]

Much of this is also perception. Lots of places are fine for walking or cycling, but people are so accustomed to driving everywhere that they drive even when it's somewhat ridiculous, like driving from one parking spot to another in the same a parking lot instead of just walking to a store elsewhere in the strip mall. Or driving to a store a block away and trying to find a parking space instead of just walking.

Some places are actively hostile to walkers: building only arterial roads and refusing to build sidewalks to exclude walkers and the wrong sort of people (black or poor). Relatively few places are so hostile to drivers. So people grow a bias toward driving everywhere. Load your bicycle on the car and drive it there to ride around in circles.