Twin Cities Streets for People

This short film, shot from a streetcar on Market Street in San Francisco in 1905, shows a street screen in sharp contrast to what we experience today in most cities and towns across the United States.  This scene may seem chaotic, but it seems to work well because all of the various road users are moving at roughly the same speed and all of the users must yield to each other. 

Fast forward to 2010 and we find ourselves having traded this more egalitarian, shared space, street design for one that favors the speedy movement of one single mode of transportation (the private automobile).  One might describe our contemporary street design as undemocratic (by giving priority to a single class of road users) in contrast to the scene on Market Street in 1905.  

Closer to home, a similar street scene could be experienced on the streets of downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul during the early 1900s.  Would we be better off with a similar scene today (without the horse drawn carriages, of course)?  Are we currently living with undemocratic streets in Minneapolis Saint Paul and the rest of our cities across the United States?