Didn't have a car when I lived in Chile, it was pretty nice. Their public transportation options are so much better than here in the US. Most I waited for a ride the whole time was maybe 3 minutes. Couldn't imagine not having a car in the US unless I lived in the city and even then I think it would get annoying
Yeah, I'm in Vancouver now, which is apparently the most transit-friendly city in North America. Considering that some things are still geared towards car-owners (there's literally no good grocery delivery service from any of the big supermarkets even) I can't imagine how bad it must be in the other cities/places.
While the number is decreasing, still around 50-60% of the people over here own cars. As opposed to 0.4-3% around the Asian cities I've stayed in, and ~10-20% in the European cities I've lived in. Still, in Vancouver, you can get everywhere around the city using public transit - usually faster too, thanks to the Skytrains and dedicated bus lanes.
Still, I'd say that the public transit in the city over here is overall quite comparable to what I was used to in Poland (downtown within 15-25 mins with buses/trains every ~3-7 minutes all around the city), but with less long-distance options and services that assume that people usually don't drive. I mean, good luck shopping at Costco and then bringing stuff back home by bus. Over there, I don't remember the last time I did any major shopping offline - things got delivered straight to my kitchen. It's also more difficult to get out of town over here, as trains and long-distance buses operate a much smaller amount of routes, which is a bummer. In Europe, you can get to literally every town, no matter how remote, by public transit.
But I actually feel more free about not having a car. The thing that is meant to provide a bit more freedom feels more like an anchor. It's an additional hassle in my book, not to mention the expense. I also like the idea of getting brownie points for being eco-friendly. Maybe the situation would be different if I actually liked driving. On a train or bus I can read and work while I'm getting to my destination, when driving I have to focus on the road and statistically spend the riskiest time of my life, while also getting annoyed at the other drivers, parking space, traffic and always having to get back to where I parked my car to get home. Probably when the self-driving electric cars become a thing, I would be interested in having one though, as they solve many of those problems while still allowing the extra freedom of driving to places that offer no public transit.