Nonsense. In and around crowded cities it's indispensible. I would never, for example, drive my car to Chicago if I can take a train. There's no "freedom" in driving in a situation like that.
I disagree. If the amount of money that was spent on public transportation was INSTEAD spent on roadway improvements, your experience traveling into Chicago would be much better.
There is literally no room for roadway improvements, to say nothing of the parking situation. The issue isn't fuel efficiency, it's the actual space taken up by cars versus the train.
This is not to say that transit "utopian" types are right, just that there is a place for it.