“people would live too far away from synagogues to attend and it condoned driving ONLY to the synagogue, but nowhere else”
I once had a discussion with the Rabbi(Chabad) at my daughter’s shul. He told that he never asks his congregants how they get to shul on Shabbat and that he would prefer them to come, no matter how they get there. He also told me that the municipality where the shul is located received a letter from a neighbor of the shul complaining about too many cars parked on the surrounding streets on Saturdays and Jewish holidays (BTW the complainants name was Abdul) but they would never consider having the parking lot open on Shabbat. So, as far as I can see the main difference between this Chabad shul’s viewpoint and that of my Conservative shul, is the fact that the Conservative parking lot is always open.