I lived in a town that didn't build any major roads for decades, so the whole town was like 7000 people on a single 5-6 mile long stretch of highway, with a few side streets going 1 block deep.

And no sidewalks at all. And the 2 lane highway had no shoulders.

So you literally had to walk 4 or 5 miles through tall grass, rocks, maybe sprint through little bits of road and hope you don't get run over, to get to anything without a car.

There was also literally zero public transport. None.