What the generational divide really means

This (14th Street during evening rush hour).

Or this (a pedestrianized part of Broadway Avenue in Manhattan, New York City).

And note that this pedestrianized part of Broadway Avenue is just an interim point. Imagine a high quality public space here, one that is vital and active and interesting, an outdoor environment that supports a variety of constituencies, residents, merchants, visitors, office workers, etc.

Pearl Street Mall, Boulder

Making this out to be about bikers vs. cars, or walking, or streetcars vs. cars, etc. truly and unequivocally misses the point, which is about maintaining and extending the quality of life in the city and how to continually enhance the quality of the public realm (and the quality of the provision of public services) to support that goal.

We have so ceded the public realm to the automobile that thinking in this more expansive fashion is almost impossible for most of us.