If you live in the countryside you need a car … I agree that people could walk more and then they use it all the time even to go to a local cafe. But people drive because you forgot to mention that trains are bad or non existent in the majority of the territory . Only around Porto and the coast there are trains . The rest of Portugal is neglected more and more . If I didn’t have a car I couldn’t eat because the next supermarket is 10 kms away . When I lived in Porto I never needed a car for sure .