Nobody wants their car infrastructure taken away or reduced. But everyone loves living in the places where car infrastructure was taken away or reduced. It's a well-known conundrum. One that takes strong political will, leaders, a crisis or all of that.
I live in the Netherlands, which in the '70s and '80s was just as car infested as any place. Part luck, part timing and part political caused it to turn away from that, invest in bikes. And not top-down, nor bottom-up, just an accidental "perfect storm". We're now a in a situation where PT, car and bike infrastructure are a complex network that co-exists and is highly efficient. Where virtually everyone has (at least) one bike, takes that to work/school on average almost daily and also travels by car, train and other PT a lot. But where, above all, this is commonly seen as something good and people do feel really happy in it.
And even here, still, removing stroads or parking lots to turn them into parks, restaurant-areas or pedestrianized areas, will always meet a lot of resistance from people who think the cars are crucial to their lives/businesses/shops/schools. Yet when it's pushed through, generally, even those opposing it, often are much happier with the space after cars were removed from it.
