> Once you are ok with driving, and very many people are, it is the most comfortable and individualized means of transport. So realistically, on one hand of course public transport must be good, but on the other hand it does not matter as much. People will still use cars whenever possible. You have to make it difficult, expensive and uncomfortable.

I think you're missing one really key factor, and that is time. If the traffic is sufficiently bad, even an easy cheap comfortable car journey stops looking attractive, because it is slow.

UK example: I've had the "pleasure" of driving right across central London; my start point was within sight of London City Airport, my destination was Heathrow Airport. The shortest route is more or less a staight-line journey of about 25 miles. You would be crazy to attempt to use that route that during working hours. It is often faster to head straight out of London, and drive a long looping route, a total of ~60 miles in length. It will save you at least 20 minutes driving time.

European example: a couple of months ago I was in the Austrian border town of Kufstein and needed to get to Innsbruck. I hopped on a Railjet train, which made the journey in 35 minutes with very few stops (only one, IIRC). By car it would have taken at best 60 minutes, assuming no major traffic issues. Motorway speeds are limited to 100km/h in that part of Austria in an attempt to reduce air pollution.[0]

[0] https://www.tirol.gv.at/en/environment/vehicle-prohibitions-...