The mixed-use-street idea is not new: it was pioneered by town planner and traffic engineer Hans Monderman in the Netherlands in the 1980s and 1990s.

FORBES: The Car on the Sidewalk and Other Reversals

The patterns are familiar, said Sam Schwartz, the former city traffic commissioner and engineer known as Gridlock Sam.

WSJ: Decoding Traffic In a Jammed City

The theory, which goes back to efforts by Danish engineer A.K. Erlang to predict phone traffic in 1909, gets pretty abstruse.

FORBES: Hurry Up And Wait

Also still employed, at least according to his LinkedIn page, is Gray Powell, the Apple engineer who lost possession of an iPhone 4 prototype, yielding Gizmodo and Gawker Media their biggest traffic bonanza ever.

FORBES: Ignoring Calls for His Head, Gawker's Denton Takes a Scalp