I have a friend who moved from Nova Scotia to a suburb of Charlotte, NC.
She walked to school sometimes- a 40 minutes walk- which is not down the block, but reasonable for someone who wanted to exercise etc...
People would stop to offer her a ride. STRANGERS. In her suburb, everyone drives everywhere, and to see someone walking...it's so disconcerting that it made kind strangers stop to see if everything was OK.
Where I'm from, sure, we're too dependant on cars. Plus this city (Dartmouth NS) is so hilly that it's hard to bike for someone who is out of shape. But still, the car culture in my friend's suburb seemed like some kind of social sickness.