[ralfn]

It has to do with density, not size.

I live in the Netherlands. Most major cities and smaller cities has good public transit and walkable centers. Not even Amsterdam has one 1 million inhabitants.

The general consensus about urban design suggest it's all about density, mixed zoning and separated bike paths and traffic calming.

[tormeh]

Of course it's about density, but car-centric cities aren't really forced to become dense until they cross that 2-3 million threshold somewhere. But that's not what I wanted to say. The issue with the Netherlands is that the Randstad is really one big city, and that makes comparisons with other places misleading.