How to design a city?

I went to a great exhibition in Prague about 8 years ago called "Shaping the Great City: Modern Architecture in Central Europe, 1890-1937" (to be exact!); it looked at the inspirations behind the design of 'modern cities', and what they hoped to achieve, in places such as Budapest, Vienna, Prague.
The artwork and drafting was amazing, and all the pictures of the cityscapes looked so appealing, but all you had to do was catch a bus 1/2 hour away from the exhibition hall to see the grim reality.
A utopian city would I think, like a utopian countryside, be one that allows complete freedom of movement in all areas for all the people therein - obviously not a possibility.
I would love to see a city where private car access (inc. cabs) was not possible/allowed, only public transport, freight, bicycles and walking.
It would be interesting to see what it would be like, whether it would be peaceful and clean, or not, for example (there would certainly be less aggression I think, once you get rid of the car-owning schizophrenics who turn from mild-mannered people into screaming hit-and-run merchants once in their bubble)

i agree on the comments about dressing up urban architecture. drawing pretty pictures of utopian cities is effectively what architects did in the cities to sell us housing commission flats..... until grassroots activism challenge them.

best example of change i've seen is Bilbao in spain. used to be crap industrial city now they are trying to turn it around by banning cars from old city, building trams to new areas (where there are no cars), and making spaces nice to be. They also have a f.cing great new buidling.

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