[graemep]

In the UK and it is similar here if you live in a big city. A car is not worth the hassle, except when you have young kids (but people with kids tend to live in suburbs). I used to rent for trips.

I now live in a town, rather than a city of any size, and (apart from shopping) need a car mostly for trips between towns within the same county and a bit beyond which are fairly short but there is a lack of good public transport.

I think this is a situation that tends to get forgotten about by policy makers living in big cities - we cannot reduce car usage without either being unable to do a lot of things easily or without a huge improvement in public transport.