In some areas of some cities, yes. But that’s not entirely what’s at issue here (though this is what many companies will claim).
Some US cities are dealing with opiod and homelessness crises which are on a scale that most cities have never faced. The complete lack of a social safety net is creating areas that are, for lack of a better word, overrun. Those areas are functionally devoid of commerical activity.
I want to be clear that the fault of those who are homeless and those who are suffering from addiction lies predominately with the government and shitty policies enacted over the last 50 years. With that said, it is understandable that people are only going to be in spaces with a lot of homeless if they are 1) homeless themselves, 2) helping the homeless in a humanitarian capacity or 3) harassing the homeless (talking about cops here).
Combine all of that, and you have areas of cities where customers aren’t going to go (because they don’t feel safe) and that have a higher proportion of crime (due to the lack of priority of law enforcement).
I’ve left the US, by my home town (city) has areas that are just no-go zones. Like, you only go there if you’re desperate. And the McDonald’s in that areas has long shuttered because they weren’t making any money and they were dealing with a bunch of issues caused by vandalism and attacks on their employees.
The US is showing what happens if you have no social safety net.
I live in the Netherlands, where a huge percentage of people commute by bicycle.
People also don’t want to go back into the office here either. My work has been begging people to actually come back into the office (another advantage of NL is that worker protections make it really hard to fire people, and firing people who are working hard just not from the place the employer wants is unlikely to be successful).
So I think this idea is largely irrelevant to cars/driving.