Cities do not need the number of cars they have, except for the one I drive.

How dare cities charge for using the street to park my vehicle. I pay enough in taxes. How dare cities charge me more to go into a congested central business district, when my car isn’t the problem - it’s all the other cars.

The reality is that it’s complicated and that there’s decades of institutionalized policies that pushed to get cars into cities, and prioritize cars over all other modes of transit, including pedestrians walking or cyclists or mass transit.

You see it everywhere - pedestrians are only given the right of way at declared intersections, and construction of new buildings has parking allowances to require minimum numbers of spots for vehicles, etc., along with building density and zoning, or street architecture that favors vehicles over all other modes of transit.

I highly recommend going to citylab.com or streetsblog.org for more on both policies and outcomes of all of this.