We have followed the PBS series “Blueprint America” closely and last night tuned in for “Road To The Future,” a tale of three cities and how choices about transportation infrastructure define the nature of the community.

Portland does all kinds of nice crunchy things to encourage bicycling and transit use and discourage sprawl, thereby creating substantial economic benefits for the city. Denver had a chance to resist sprawl a generation ago, but after a year or so of quivering resistance, gave in to it with total abandon and now has a vast, untamed mane of exurbs (a bad thing). New York is a totally exceptional case for many reasons that combine to make it America’s greenest and most transit-friendly city.
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