You can go a lot more than 1.5mi in 10min if there isn't bad traffic. If 3/10 of those minutes are on a highway that's probably an hour or worth or more of walking.
>If the walk would be unpleasant or otherwise not viable, can't that probably be blamed on car systems as well?
Houston will be hot and Detroit will be cold for several months of the year with or without cars. Having air conditioned boxes that can do last mile transportation is part of why the southern US is as developed as it is. Obviously there becomes a density point where it makes sense to offload a lot of the transportation needs onto public traffic by many cities and suburbs are not there yet.
I see my position as not car-hostile or car-eliminatory but efficiency-maximising. With that said, this:
>Obviously there becomes a density point where it makes sense to offload a lot of the transportation needs onto public traffic by many cities and suburbs are not there yet.
Is a bit hard to swallow when car-default systems allow indefinite suburban growth. Feedback loop.
If the walk would be unpleasant or otherwise not viable, can't that probably be blamed on car systems as well?
I don't think anyone thinks we can get rid of cars entirely. I'm from a country with the same land area as Japan but with ~115 million fewer people. You can't get rid of private vehicles in a place like that. But you can make urban areas less wasteful and more enjoyable.