Curb Your Enthusiasm

It's a truism to observe that it can be hard to get along without a car in this crazy, crazy world. My wife and I live carlessly in Chicago for almost five years, I used the bus almost every day when we lived in Minneapolis, and now we are doing okay, down here in Small Minnesota River Town, with one car, so long as I bike to work. My lack of attachment to the car makes the new practice of "psychological traffic calming" - "to blur the boundary between pedestrians and automobiles by removing sidewalks and traffic devices, and to create a seamless multi-purpose urban space" - sound very appealing, a good way for practically every city to make it easier for cars, people, and bikers to get along. Can't you just see how this would make a nice compact downtown or neighborhood shopping district (say, Uptown Minneapolis) even more friendly?