You have to be deliberate about where you live. If you don’t want to be car dependent, you have to move somewhere that isn’t car dependent or you’re gonna have a Bad Time™.

This. The two most important places are the home and the workplace. It is ideal if average daily commuting is less than one hour. But you can factor in that healthy humans positively need about one hour of daily excercise per day, so you can subtract that as gym time.

Everything else flows from chosing the right places and making it a priority to be able to get there either by bike or public transport.

Having done that, you will invariably find that you do not spend more time on errands and getting around than people which own a car. Inhabitants of Copenhagen or Amsterdam do not spent more time commuting than inhabitants if Houston or Los Angeles.

It is also great to chose a place with a community which has local social interactions. Most humans need that, too.