The Times Square thing was not done as a fully permanent installation on the first run. What was done in the end was EXPENSIVE (tens of millions) and still isn’t perfect (bike lane sucks) and is still getting substantially dug up and rebuilt often (subway entrance expansion at 42nd). It’s good that they did it… but it sops up a discouraging amount of money to do things like that. Madison Square/Flatiron, reconfigured years ago, is still mostly paint + plastic + original curbs.

But you’re right; permanent changes should be budgeted now. If they’re not, it’ll take much longer to get to the point that you can do them (the construction itself goes pretty quickly; all the preparation takes forever)