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@JWestland
One remark: A near empty diesel bus isn't particularly environmentally friendly either. Same with a near empty train.
Only for a certain amount of cover public transport > car.
Now this can be solved with more flexible solutions (the dial-a-bus dispatching a small van bus for example for those not in a hurry) and alternative fuels (biofuel bus).
But as transport vehicles are always "hard goods" that need to be in a certain place it's not an easy puzzle.
Even worse, yes worse, at the moment as they're working on it, are li-ion battery powered cars: They may not emit a lot of local pollution but it's extremely costly to produce the battery and they don't last.
An uncle of mine worked on the transport issue, and increasing distances from work lead to dead inner cities and what The_Seldom_Killer also noted: Stupid long commutes. His solution was to slow the car down and stop building roads that just fill up again.
As for me, taxis cost me more on the school run than my car, and it's impossible to do with public transport where I am. (a box bike MAY be possible, it's too bad you can't try one out where I am, and some days in the year it won't work)
However, transport may be a right (it would be I feel wrong to force isolation on somebody that can't cycle) driving a car is not, break the rules and lose the license. And rightly so.