I think this is a case of where you just can't imagine living in a differently working system anymore. What you describe are typical problems in a place with bad public transport and/or urban planning that's not made for public transport (i.e. suburbia).
Here's how this works out in any Japanese or Swiss town/city above ~80k inhabitants: You have a public transport network where all the schedules are synched up. Ideally you have a metro/streetcar/trolley station nearby that can pick you up (if it's a normal bus you may have congested road, so you can't plan exactly by the minute, just like with cars). You go there 2min in advance. Once on board, you work/read HN/read/play/whatever [1]. You arrive at a trainstation, swipe a card, walk ~50m and wait 3min for a train. Again, read. 15-60min and 1-2 changes later you have arrived at your destination without even thinking about it, without putting you or anyone else in significant danger, without already being stressed out. On your way home you spend 10-15m more at one of the train stations where you had to change anyway, get some fresh grocery, and be done with it. No need for your exhausting weekly trips to the mall. You don't even have to leave the station building. Got anything else to do? No problem, there's service offerings for pretty much anything you need within 200m of where you are, because the train station brings so much density of people that it's worth it to have all kinds of stores open.
You know, I like driving - I dream about fast cars and all that. I just wouldn't want to be forced to do it every day with unplannable traffic conditions and all that. When I drive, I want to have an flexible schedule, i.e. the weekends.