> Reading your comment, it sounds like you want a game that is realistic in most respects, but treats transportation differently,

It's the opposite, no? Most city builders cheat to be able to be fun. Like, with the amount of roads one build in Sim City, half the map would have had to been parking lots to account for that amount of traffic. But that's boring gameplay, so they remove that constraint to make a fun game. Aka you never have to deal with the consequences of making your city car dependent.

Edit: See another comment from CalRobert about exactly this.