jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
It's a lot more complex than that. Right now there's a glut of suburban and exurban housing and a shortage of urban housing. On top of that, government at all levels directly or indirectly subsidizes auto use more than other modes. Despite these subsidies, owning a car is still hideously expensive simply because it's just about the least efficient mode of transport possible in terms of space or energy. What puzzles me is why the average American isn't shouting at the top of their lungs telling government to do something so car ownership would be far less necessary. Seriously, an entry level car costs more than a person takes home on a minimum wage job. That basically makes working for low wages pointless if you'll need to drive to the job. You'll be working just to pay for your car.Society and most of the country are designed in such a way that existing without a car is a significant disability (insert JTR here, I said "most" ).
That said, I think we need more outside the box thinking here. If there is a need for individual motorized transportation in a good part of the country, then why must it take form of something weighing several tons? Why not something like an electric velomobile? That'll work fine for most trips. It'll easily cruise at highway speeds with maybe 1 or 2 HP. The battery will give sufficient range for most trips. If there are rare times you're carrying a heavy load or doing something the velomobile can't do you rent a conventional car. Sure, cars are going to be ridiculously expensive precisely because they're grossly overdesigned for what the average person uses them for.
Another big problem with the concept of everyone needing to drive is the fact most people really can't drive safely, regardless of how much training they have. They simply lack the reflexes, spatial judgement, intelligence, or attitude. No amount of training can fix that. We made a Faustian bargain once we created communities where driving became practically mandatory. Despite decades of road and vehicle safely engineering, plus dumbing down the driving process, you still have insane levels of carnage because we insist on letting incompetents drive. If the NTSB was in charge of road transport, they would shut the entire system down until a way was found to make it safer. That would either be self-driving cars, or much stricter licensing akin to what a pilot needs to go through to get and keep their license.