There was an awesome talk by an architect Jan Gehl that I managed to catch (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2011/06/21/3248796.htm http://www.abc.net.

There was an awesome talk by an architect Jan Gehl that I managed to catch (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2011/06/21/3248796.htm http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2011/06/21/3248796...) talking about how new development projects have been built to look good from the Plane and Helicopter perspectives (from 5000feet/metres and rooftop/helicopter) while completely ignoring the street level at which most people operate on. While the talk was more about large building projects, in the second half he does talk about how Copenhagen has transformed itself into a more bike and people friendly environment. More specifically he details how people's behaviour has changed in response to the different environmen, where walking and riding has been made more accessible and safer (for instance bike lanes on the inside of parked cars, so the cars protect the bike lane from the street), more people end up walking and riding. Now suburbia has pretty much been designed for cars rather than people, and as such it is no real wonder that you have to drive everywhere rather than cycling or walking. It should be possible to change this suburbia to something less car friendly, perhaps in cities like Detroit and others, which are in the process of removing suburbs entirely (or so I have read), so that people's behaviour changes. However I don't see this happening easily in the USA. People will relinquish their suburbs, cars, SUV's only when pried from their cold dead hands.