It's perfectly possible to go car free, provided you don't live 10+ miles from the nearest shop or train station. Therefore a large proportion of people in the UK, especially in England, could go car free, provided they're prepared to make some sacrifices to the illusion of freedom that having a car parked outside appears to give people.
I went car free 6 years ago, when I realised that after taking account of tax, insurance & servicing costs over the previous few years, that the car was costing £200 per month just to be sat on the drive. And that was before putting fuel in to then be used maybe once or twice a week. By that stage I'd already been commuting daily by bike for nearly 10 years, as my 6½ mile trip to work is quicker by bike than car.
When you breakdown and analyse what you actually need to use a car for, it's quite simple.
Shops will deliver heavy items. On a cargo bike I can carry in 6 panniers enough food for 4 people for a week. For trips to London or other places, occasional train tickets and taxis are cheap enough, and certainly a lot less than £200 pm. And for obscure journeys somewhere, you can hire a car for the weekend.
However, it only worked because I was prepared to look at the bigger picture and decide I didn't want to be selfish and clog the roads & pump out pollution like all the other drivers.
Having said that, I have just had to resort to getting a vehicle due to a change in circumstances. As I'll be retiring next year, selling the house and downsizing to split my time between Mitcham & Bognor, due to the sheer quantity and volume of things I'll be taking for recycling and moving between properties, it wouldn't be feasible to do that by bike or constantly hiring vans. And I've dealt with the pollution aspect to some extent by getting an electric car.