For too many years, planners and designers focused on the highway and the car, placing it in importance above the individual person.  Wide sidewalks, vegetated medians, street trees, and bulb-outs are all ways of making the pedestrian feel comfortable and slow cars down.  If you want your design to have decent street life, be financially stable, and connect to people of all kinds, you need to put the pedestrian first.

Find out more at http://adashofdesign.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/good-urban-design/