You know, I've pretty much stopped taking the "you must have a driver's license" bit seriously because most motorists either embellish the adversities of other modes of transportation or because of lifestyle choices that they made. Simply put, people choose to live in subdivisions that make it difficult to accomplish anything without driving, because those subdivisions lack local services and lack the density for local services to ever be practical. In doing so, not only are they making the driving decision but they are also making inadvertent decisions about agriculture (farmland is often converted into a subdivision) and the environment (wildlife habitat is often converted into subdivisions). Government fiscal policy is also decided when people move out to the burbs, because roads are by no means cheap to maintain.
Yeah, there are people who need to drive. Some will need to do so because it is part of their job, and others because their job forces them to live in remote locations. But those people are in the minority.

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Come to Houston. Please. You will change your mind.

I live in an apartment in southwest Houston. It's inside of "The Loop" 610, a 38 mile circle around downtown Houston. I'm not downtown, but I'm not in a particularly suburban area either. All the land has been developed. You could not live very much closer to downtown without paying a significantly greater monthly rent or mortgage, living in a significantly worse neighborhood in terms of crime, or taking a greatly reduced amount of space for the same rent. The rent here is $1000 for a 3 bedroom apartment of about 1070 sq ft which is split 3 ways with 2 other roommates.

The nearest full-line grocery store is one mile away. Most people walk at about 3 MPH, which means it would take 20 minutes just to walk to the grocery store - not including cross walks where you may have to wait until it is safe to walk. As sidewalks are often missing or unmaintained, much of this journey will either be in the grass on private property, or in the street where cars whir by at 40 MPH. Once you actually buy the food, then you are limited as to how many groceries you can bring back - maybe 2 of the standard large paper bags. Using any cart or other conveyance would be impossible due to the missing or unmaintained sidewalks. It would take you about 45 minutes (counting crosswalks, etc.) round trip, and you would have to do it more often than if you had a car, perhaps twice a week.

If you ride a bike to the grocery store, you must face the same poor sidewalk situation, as well as having to bike on the street where cars may very well run you over. It may take you only 15 minutes round trip, but you will be able to carry even less groceries than if you were walking, as you'll have to use some type of basket or backpack. It may take 3 trips a week to buy the same amount of food as 2 walking trips or 1 car trip.

You could take the bus - except the bus is not going directly to the grocery store. No - it's going to several other stops first, and who knows how long that's going to take? You can hold 2 bags in your lap - but you're going to pay $1 each ride - that's $4 a week.

In contrast, the same trip in a car would take less than 10 minutes round trip, and you could go only once per week or even less since you can carry a huge number of bags in the car. Gas costs would be about 20¢. It's difficult to calculate things such as total cost of the drive here (insurance, car payment, maintenance, etc.) but I'm willing to bet it's less than $4.

To summarize:

Walking - 2 trips a week - Carry medium amount of food - Free - 90 minutes a week. - No pollution

Biking - 3 trips a week - Carry small amount of food - Free - 45 minutes a week. - No pollution

Bus - 2 trips a week - Carry medium amount of food - $4/wk - Who knows? - Almost no pollution (the bus pollutes whether or not you're on it, but your weight on the bus contributes a very small amount)

Car - 1 trip a week or less - Carry massive amount of food - 20¢/wk (gas) - 10 minutes a week. - Minor pollution

That's just to go to the grocery store that's only one mile away.

Don't get me started on going to work.