I feel like people mistake YouTube for a video hosting solution.
But that's not the point.
- YouTube a huge archive of content that accumulated over the past 17 years.
- YouTube is a content suggestion machine. Discoverability is a key aspect.
- YouTube sets an incentive by allowing people to monetize their content.
- ...
So, if the only thing you're looking for is a video hosting solution, then, yes, PeerTube might be an alternative. In the same way uploading videos to your own webspace would be, and Vimeo also still exists.
But for all the other stuff, YT is, unfortunately, unmatched, and probably will be for a while ...
Haha yes, the car is the German's favorite child, and complaining their favorite pastime.
That being said, I think there's more factors to it. Keep in mind that most German cities were in ruins after WWII, and plenty of buildings have been demolished to make room for cars.
The difference in electoral systems might play a role, where a green party could slowly, but steadily gain influence.
Railway infrastructure was already quite dense before mass motorization.
A lot of money has been spend to get through traffic out of town centers.
There's probably more to it ...