I dunno, I find that the older east coast cities that were built before cars took over have much better public transport and pedestrian infrastructure

Some of the big old cities have better Mass Transportation (subways and buses) but their oldest parts (Even NYC) downtown sectors have narrow walkways that twist and turn and narrow roads which leave pedestrians closer to speeding cars, trucks and splashes from puddles. They are also the areas where one can find utility poles, streetlights etc. blocking the path like the one you took a pic of.

Most of the newer cities I've lived in had pretty good bus service in center city areas, but few that went into the outer areas, and the few that did had time schedules that could take you two or three hours of waiting time just to do a twenty minute chore.

The medium sized old city that I'm in presently even has exterior steps to some buildings that come all the way out onto narrow sidewalks leaving little room to maneuver. They've also just begun to install Handycap ramps on the corners that were mostly non-existent.

Add that to the broken, raised and sunken brick or slate sidewalks that mothers with strollers, old folk with canes or walkers and folk in wheelchairs had problems with, and I'd say the conditions were not very pedestrian friendly :~(