And not very remote at all for it to be practically non existent and unreliable

Every passing year non-city/big town buses get cut and cut and cut because councils are bankrupt

To have none at all, yes, it would have to be very remote.

To have very limited public transport, then lots of places outside big cities.

I just dropped by daughter off at a friend's house. 4 minutes by car, 40 minutes by bus. Busses here are infrequent and unreliable. You need to take a bus to get to a train if you are going a longer distance.

This is in a town with a population of about 20 thousand in Cheshire.