When I was growing up, I always thought of New York City as a sprawling, crowded, traffic-clogged mess. It is hard for me to remember that I was just in NYC for 2 months a month ago. That short time there was enough time to see that NYC was promoting livable transportation through supporting bike to work day, greening Madison Square, and getting serious about physically separated bike lanes. It seems that the planning authorities, citizen activists and even politicians of NYC seem to have put their weight behind pedestrian, bike and mass-transit friendly planning. The result is even good for motorists and businesses, as the video below shows.


While some people may still like to talk about the war between cyclists, pedestrians and motorists, the video below—created by environmental transport non-profit Embarq—emphasizes in no uncertain terms that a holistic, people-centric approach to planning can be good for everyone, even motorists. After all, when streets are so clogged with cars and people, all competing for the same space, it's inevitable that everyone loses.
Instead, New York is beginning to understand that by distributing resources more equally among different transport modes, and by designing dedicated, well-thought out infrastructure for everyone, you can free up the arteries of the city to flow more freely; you can create pleasant spaces for people to spend time in, and you can boost business as a result too.