while true, this is reliant on company leadership (and their boards/shareholders) to allow for it. there's too much invested in commercial real estate at the moment that every publicly traded company with significant stake from some large investor(s) will be forcing RTO/hybrid. the calculus of 'slightly unhappy workers' vs 'complete collapse for X% of my portfolio' is not a difficult solve

which isn't to say that this is right or just. it's simply the state of things given the way we've decided to arrange our society

I exclusively work remote jobs myself, but I wouldn't say just don't ever have or use a personal vehicle. It costs me $20–40 to get up to family in another state and a train ticket (one-way) in my area would cost twice as much.

This is a subjective observation, not an argument for congestion pricing.