People living near major shopping centers plan their weeks around store hours. Trucks are everywhere and they seem to be getting bigger, noisier, and more polluting. If you don't wish to drive, the options are limited and unappealing. Bus service within the county is infrequent, slow, and uncomfortable. Rail service rarely can take anyone anywhere they wish to go to in the county.
Taxis are unaffordable.
Buses to the city get stuck in the same jams as cars until they get to the exclusive bus lane near the Lincoln Tunnel. Commuter rail, if there is any service at all near you, first requires a trip to Hoboken, followed by a long, clunky PATH ride. If you are going someplace close, most avoid walking or biking. It may be a one-way ticket to the hereafter. It doesn't have to be this way.