Apart from disability and in some cases, extreme poverty, yes there is nearly always a point in your life where you've made a choice that has had an impact on how you live now.
Well yeah, of course there is. But not everyone has a choice between, say, city and country, or town A (no transport) and town B (plenty of transport).
Towns and cities with good infrastructure, plenty of public transport and good access to schools come with a price tag that lots of ordinary working families can't afford. They're not necessarily in poverty, they just can't afford the cost of rent or a mortgage in those places.
We earn over 30k between us. We're certainly not in poverty but equally we couldn't afford to live in the town I work in, at least, not without moving into a rented studio flat above a shop. Not that there's anything wrong with making that choice, but it's hardly practical choice for a young family, especially when you can buy a two/three bedroomed house with a garden for less money nearby.
Families with young children need to live in affordable places, close to schools and with decent childcare. To afford that, lots of people have no choice but to move out of the cities and big towns and into rural areas, and unfortunately the price of that is having to drive everywhere. That's not their fault, it's the government's fault for not putting decent public transport links in place.
Or do you think money just comes out of thin air and people choose to live rurally or in places with no transport for shits and giggles?