Another obvious issue: you can make traffic flow faster by reducing the time allotted to pedestrians. This makes walking a worse and less dignified experience.

Another obvious issue: you can make traffic flow faster by reducing the time allotted to pedestrians. This makes walking a worse and less dignified experience. So even more people decide to drive instead of walking. Result: more traffic, more emissions, worse city. The researchers would have to be very naive to omit this from their model, so I am going to assume that they did take it into account. But I agree - it's disturbing not to see it mentioned at all.