Spend 1 month with your kids in a place where cars are actually not needed, only then you can actually understand what you are denying your kids.
And if you want to know right away, think about who can drive your car, as supposed being able to walk or ride somewhere. You're limiting their own personal freedom by forcing them to have you always needed to go somewhere.
NYC is subpar too. The elevators never work, most stations don’t have escalators either, it’s filthy, taking your kids on the train will give them permanent hearing damage and large swaths of the city are completely unserviced.
Your feeling is the result of NYC and the entire USA being generally dysfunctional, not an inherent truth.
I don’t really want my kids have that much personal freedom because they’re kids. I live very suburban and my kids could walk to one of the neighborhood parks (2-3 minutes) or to a friends house but I don’t see them needing more than that.
And if you want to know right away, think about who can drive your car, as supposed being able to walk or ride somewhere. You're limiting their own personal freedom by forcing them to have you always needed to go somewhere.