When you’re poor enough you often don’t have the luxury of working around shitty transportation and even people too poor to afford a car often end up suffering for it because of how much it can help to have reliable transportation when poor. Many jobs require having reliable transportation for example and don’t count public transportation as “reliable”. You need all the extra time you can get, and you need to be able to travel places on time reliably, you often can’t afford to just “leave early” to make up for the possibility of your bus coming too late, or early, or not coming at all, and many poor people are poor because they suffer from chronic health complications which can limit their ability to bike or walk. In some places public transportation can also bring with it an element of danger depending on the person travelling and the place they’re travelling in. On top of that if someone is so poor that they risk being homeless then a car may be their only remaining option for shelter. And having a commute that is only ~40 minutes via public transportation and bike is actually quite lucky. Not everyone manages to have that luck and it may take them hours to get to work that way when driving would only take 30 minutes, and if you work 3 jobs and have 3 kids to take care of you aren’t going to want to give up that extra time. Being poor costs more than just money, it costs time and energy and mental/physical health.

It sucks that society is shaped to force many people to rely on cars but it is absolutely not a luxury for everyone.