Because the amenities you require are geographically close enough to not necessitate a car. I don't know what the population density is where you live, but if it's a city, there's obviously going to be public transit to make that happen at least somewhat efficiently.
And yeah, the cities that don't have effective public transportation, or just have unattractive public transportation (i.e. "its too crowded," "I don't want to be around this many people," etc.) are the places where you'll find more traffic on the road. In a rural setting though, it comes down to a low population density and much broader geographical ranges. I'd imagine that makes public transportation really inefficient, and in the eyes of local government, fiscally untenable.