[f1yght]

Everyone driving EVs still has very large infrastructure costs of building and maintaining roads, parking, garages, etc versus if people lived in walkable and bikeable areas. Less wear and tear on roads by orders of magnitude when not using a car reduces maintenance, less roads have to be built, less wasted space for parking. The idea of making things more walkable and dense is to reduce maintenance costs for society and reduce things that just aren't fun like driving between 2 destinations. "Life has to suck" would be living far from everything and having to maintain a house that's way too big.

[gottorf]

Europe is full of charming little walkable towns that bleed people every single year, because the majority of economic opportunities are in a small number of big concrete jungle cities that may be walkable in part but are on the whole full of cars, pollution, and the assorted unpleasantries of big city life.

Different people enjoy different things. I'd say policy should try and make things cost more or less what they should cost, and let people express their preferences by paying for what they want.