And most people need them because most people have them.

I know of families in ecotowns that don't have cars. The tram service covers nearly everything they need, and when they do actually need a car, they get a car-share/rental.

The infrastructure where they live is set up for this, to the extent that owning a car is awkward, because you're not allowed to park it anywhere near the houses, but it's fine because there are such good facilities for people without cars in that area.

The point is that we need cars because we don't have good facilities for not having cars, and we don't have good facilities because we all have cars.

Totally agree. I am of the generation that grew up without a car and life was pretty tough on public transport and it meant we couldn't do things like shop efficiently and price consciously because we had to think how we would carry our purchases home.

I still use public transport as much as I can, and the traffic in London is such that it's often a viable option, but a car is also a necessity.

Not really. I was raised without a car just fine, as was most of my generation.