I think we've seen the opposite of the desired impact. People are moving _out_ of dense urban neighborhoods to suburban and exurban enclaves as the primary motivator for living close-in (it reduces commute/offers public transit) is becoming a non-issue.

Yes that's what I mean: the transportation-sucks problem can be solved either by improving transportation or avoiding it. I would have preferred improvement, but getting a giant house in the exurbs and never leaving it also technically works.

But people still go places. All the time. Shopping, dinner, appointments, friends, gym etc and now a lot of _those_ activities are further away

Where are you going to go to dinner? Olive Garden? I think any reasonable version of this lifestyle involves being mostly self-sufficient at home. Especially in an Amazon Prime, UberEats, Peloton world. The stroads and strip malls that are the commercial centers and gathering places of exurbia are really unpleasant. People only go there because they have to. Increasingly they don't have to anymore.

I've not eaten at an Olive Garden in years. No idea where to live, but in the suburb I live in there are countless family-owned restaurants with cuisine from all corners of the world.

Btw, having Uber Eats bring you your food does fuck all for your emissions. In fact, it could increase them (depending on where the driver started at their destination afterwards).