It's not even a freedom to travel... It's a requirement. You want to live in area where you don't need need a car? Only a few cities in America make that reality possible. If you want/have to live/work anywhere else... You need a car. That's not freedom. Also those places where you don't need a car are very expensive to live in.

Its not a lack of rails and light rails... It's a lack of local transportation that's fast and reliable.

People actually use the bus system in Ann Arbor because it runs on time, frequently and is clean. I'm all for a transportation haven but a lot of cities can't even walk and are trying to run.

Detroits Q Line is a good example of running before you can walk. The bus system is god awful. Late. No shows. Generally unreliable. Then they just slapped a thing on top of it that's probably even less reliable...