You can make an urban design in which the tradeoffs of car ownership tip toward non-ownership, but it is very difficult to make a modern city in which car ownership confers no benefit. Even in a place like NYC, where I've lived, you really cannot beat point-to-point for convenience and speed. That doesn't mean every route in NYC is best served by driving. The subway is great! But there will always be situations in which the easiest thing by far would be to drive point-to-point, if you have access to a car.
Urbanists who tell people there is no benefit to car ownership in dense urban areas are performing a sort of gaslighting. Everybody basically knows that's not true. The argument, instead, is that you can create a city in which the cost/benefit analysis changes. This is subtle, but I think the difference matters. You can adjust how people think of the tradeoffs, but you cannot really make them believe cars aren't still useful in those environments.
While I would not say there are no benefits from owning a car point-to-point speed is pretty bad for cars in many European cities due to having too find parking. On many trips I would say the fastest mode of travel is electric scooter.
Urbanists who tell people there is no benefit to car ownership in dense urban areas are performing a sort of gaslighting. Everybody basically knows that's not true. The argument, instead, is that you can create a city in which the cost/benefit analysis changes. This is subtle, but I think the difference matters. You can adjust how people think of the tradeoffs, but you cannot really make them believe cars aren't still useful in those environments.