> What city do you live in?
A small town with about 7000 citizens some 50 kilometers away from the city I work in in southern Germany.
No colleagues living near me, so no carpooling. Public transport, while arguably a lot better than in the states, is so fractures that it means leaving at 5 and returning at 21:30 - unless you need the "flexibility" of attending late-evening meetings or after-work activities, then it pretty much becomes unusable. Biking in? Sure, takes even more time (I average some 20 km/h, this is hilly terrain), and I am completely finished when I arrive. And moving here? I would pay four times what I pay now in rent for the privilege of living in an industrial wasteland.
Without the car, I could not do my job.
That being said, I am lucky that my employer provides a parking ramp at the location I currently work at. When they make us move locations again, there is a good chance streetcurb parking is the only option available to me.
What we need to do is to make cities places where cyclists, motor vehicle drivers and pedestrians can coexist. I think playing the cheap, political "divide and conquer" card by diminishing one side for the other will make them worse for everyone involved.
For starters, we should check if we can just move vehicle traffic underground for major arteries and use the space above for cyclists and pedestrians.
> I thought we were talking about commuting?
Ah, here's the misunderstanding. I am talking about access to the city, regardless of frequency. The problem does not go away if you prohibit commuting.