There is plenty of rural areas where you can’t pratically live without one.

And that should not be acceptable. Every one should be able to commute by public transport. A car dependent situation is not immutable and should not be treated as such. You’r looking at the problems the wrong way. instead of asking what the best car is for a specific run reality, whe should be asking ourselves how to change that reality sot it’s not car dependent anymore.

Why not both? No one is going to put their lives on hold until public transit becomes available. Until that happens, you choose the least harmful option.

As for having public transit available for everyone, how would that work in very sparsely populated areas? Wouldn’t you just be wasting a ton of resources driving around a vehicle with no one in it?

I agree with the first statement. The answer for the least harfull option is easy though : if you currently are dependent on cars (a lot of people think they are but really aren’t, they are just lazy), get the smallest, most reliable second hand car you can find. Buying any thing new is just feedind the capitalist beast that the car industry is. If you choose to live in such a remote place that any form of public transportation would be “wasting a ton of resources driving around a vehicle with no one in it” then you are on you own.

What about people who live in such areas because there are jobs there that need doing?

If you are somewhere for work then you’re probably not on your own and your employer could offer some form of common transportation so you don’t rely on your own car (and foundings) to get your task done.

Ok, for one example, what would a park ranger do? (Not just USA rangers, this is a global job role.)

You will aways find exceptions (like emergency and medical sercices, transporting people who cannot walk or bike, transporting goods …) that’s why I said “most of the time”. A park ranger , use a car for her/his duties and go back home to her/his personal business with public transport. Most situations could be handled without a car, and the few left could be handled with much smaller vehicles (and should be looked at to minimize the use of car to a maximum. I’m sure a ranger could do some of her/his job riding a dirtbike)