Honestly, I don't see cars are necessarily bad for the urban form. It's really building the urban form to accommodate cars over buses, trains, bikes, and people that's the problem.
Living in LA, I do still use my car, but it's more of a choice now rather than something I need for daily activities. I live within walking distance of my job and a Metro station, so I only drive for leisure and getting groceries.
I couldn't do that in the IE, let alone newer car centric development where you have a bunch of SFHs in a cul-de-sac on one plot of land adjacent to a commercial area with a shit ton of parking lots, stroads, etc. That postwar layout is extremely hostile to walking and anything else that's not a car.
There has to be some sort of balance and the interwar urbanism provides that balance, in my opinion. We ain't getting rid of the automobile, but it doesn't need to be the only way to get around in the majority of our country. Even in NYC with the highest percentage of car-less households you still have a strong car culture among folks who hate that one lane of traffic on a street is being converted to a bike lane.
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