I would fully agree with the OP (and will add my thanks after this post) but it seems society - at least here in the UK - is conspiring against this idea.
Most local towns and cities here - and I suspect in most developed places - seem to actively work against car use in lots of ways - bus lanes, low speed limits and streets blocked off.
But at the same time they are happy to allow supermarket developments (Asda (aka Walmart UK), Tesco, Sainsbury's etc.) to develop both in the suburbs and in out of town centres which are only accessible by car.
Of course they (the towns and cities) receive income from these.
The result of this is that many of the short trips - e.g to get some milk for tea or a loaf of bread from a local shop - are no longer possible because those local shops can't compete and are no longer there.
The local "high street" (aka "Main street" in the US) doesn't really exist any more. There may be local markets, and farmer's markets but nothing permanent.
Local shops here in the UK exist selling three things - newspapers in the morning, tobacco in various forms and alcohol. Thats it. My local store has 5 rows of shelves - 2 are dedicated to alcohol, 1 to newspapers and magazines. Fruit and veg occupy 1, and chilled stuff (pizzas etc.) the last 1.
Inside a 3 mile radius of this store there are 3 Tescos (2 small and one large), 1 Sainsburys and an Asda main store. They have no chance of competing on anything else.
uk.gov and scotland.gov have ideas about reducing tobacco and alcohol consumption which include pricing and limiting displays and sales. Once those hit these local shops will have no income stream at all and will close.
At which point I end up in my car.
EDIT - I like my alcohol but I don't mean thats all I buy...