Design encompasses a large-scale planning vision articulated through concise socio-economic objectives and broad outlines of mega-infrastructure networks. Such schemes’ values and macro evaluation rarely include the microscopic aspect of walking mode. Using an urban design and transport unifying theoretical framework, the wider economic impact of transport and multi-modal complex network centralities analyses motivated by human spatial cognition, we identify the causal effect of transport network centralities on productivity measured by gross value added. We use a similar approach to evaluate a large-scale planning vision which can be considered a design concept. We show how omitting the walking mode gives more importance to the road network. We discuss the walking mode omission as a model misspecification and recent changes, and we discuss the curse of multidimensionality from a design perspective. A brief comparison with a four-stage transport demand modelling is made.