In discussing the subject I think there are roughly two different issues and sometimes people confuse the two. One aspect is whether or not people can meet most of their basic daily needs/wants without a car, and this means having a neighborhood with a supermarket and similar. The other is whether there are options for traveling to other neighborhoods which might be necessary on a regular basis. A place like Los Angeles is much better on the first area than people think (not universally true in the entire urban area, but much better in general than is recognized), though less awesome on the second part (though improving).
