Cities change according to design plans. Expect the unexpected. Fundamental changes are happening. Many of the world's great cities are moving away from cars to thigh power - yes, walking and cycling. It isn't just low-density European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen that have done it; New York and even Los Angeles have also gotten into the act.
Crowded New York currently has 725 kilometres of cycling lanes and will quadruple that figure by 2030. Walking is already a popular way of getting around, especially in Manhattan. Now, with bike lanes designed into the city's future plan, cycling and walking will be its main low-carbon modes of mobility.
Amsterdam, also a pleasant city for walking, helped New York plan its bike lanes. The Dutch are probably the world's most committed cyclists - half of the 1.5 million residents of Amsterdam ride a bike every day! Remarkably, even people over 65 make a quarter of all their trips by bikes.
Possibly more surprising is the planning that is under way in car-heaven Los Angeles - where the car is king, vehicular pollution a major problem, public transport an afterthought and walking unfashionable. The city is spread out and people have to drive everywhere. Nevertheless, Los Angeles plans to spend US$230 million to create 2,730 kilometres of cycling paths - most of it in the next five years.
The Los Angeles plan is quite amazing. Along the biking lanes there will be changing rooms, bike storage services and also showers. A cyclist can get cleaned up before going to work in the morning, since he could be coming from quite a distance.
These services will apparently be operated by city authorities as well as private businesses. Officials responsible for the project say cycling is seen as a way to increase mobility in this sprawling city because there simply cannot be any more cars on the road. They feel, in other words, that the city has reached its capacity for coping with cars.