just watched Mindhunt (Unabomber story) and they discuss this idea: cars appeared with the promise of freedom (freedom to go wherever you want), but they ended up reshaping the cities in a way that you actually become less free, as you can't go anywhere or do anything within walking distance (you're obliged to use a car).
i'm currently reading the books this guy wrote while incarcerated (he wrote some while being 72+ years old, and had two decades to develop his thoughts on society and technology), and a lot of it resonates with our current realisation (in the context of climate change) that everything we've done over the past decades was completely wrong.