This situation happened at a high-density gathering point (a grocery store) in a major city (Columbus, Ohio.) The people in the story didn't break down by the side of some lonely highway passing through the desert with no signs of civilization for a hundred kilometers either way. I am therefore speaking of systemic failures in major cities that render people in major cities stuck like this.

That said, I've been to (and briefly lived in) multiple tiny rural farming villages in the middle of nowhere in India that still had a bus stop and/or a train station within walking distance. When that isn't the case there are minivans or even livestock carts that get people to where they need to be going (those count as public transport too.) Public transit is literally how people (and their groceries) get around in the heartland. Y'all bring up this point of how not everyone lives in cities every single time -- we know. Americans aren't the only ones who live on farms or out of the way. We do, too, and we get by just fine without cars.