Enrique Penalosaa and equality

Interesting little interview with Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor of Bogota, Colombia and interestingly a Duke alum, here (He's also featured in a NYT article today). He recognizes that city planners can choose between designing cities for cars or for people. He goes on to argue that creating a pedestrian friendly city promotes equality in the sense that the government is willing to support infrastructure for the guy with the $30 bicycle and not just build the city for the guy with the $30,000 car. I imagine that's a valid argument in the developing world where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is huge. However, I wonder if that's the case in the US where we have a growing income gap, but even many of the poor have cars. That being said, the poor may not have a choice but to find a way to get a car given that our cities are so auto-dependent. At the least, I am sure that car-related expenses as a percentage of income is much higher for the poor than the rich.

American culture considers equality an important value, but when we provide equal opportunity (i.e. everyone has access to our highways), we don't provide equal resources to take advantage of the opportunity (i.e. make sure everyone has cars to get on the highway). I do realize that another related element of American culture is the pull-yourself-by-your-own-bootstraps mentality, so it's not surprising that we'll provide people with opportunity, but without resources to fully take advantage of the opportunity (because that's their responsibility). But does this really make sense?