Cities and civilisation

When I was on the plane last week, reading Air Canada's enRoute magazine, I was struck by their Civilization Index:

"It began in August 2002 with a simple, optimistic premise: that civilization was a thing to be measured, like population or GDP. If the UN could measure Human Development, then why couldn’t enRoute measure Human Civilization? With indices and formulas prepared, our correspondents – wherever possible, locals who knew their cities intimately – started collecting data. For 2.5 years in 24 cities, we stood on street corners ... [and] finally, we are ready to present the complete rankings, summarizing what we’ve learned about the world’s great (and not so great) cities."

But get their five indicies of civilisation!

1. Soft Drink/Beer Ratio
In the absence of distorting government taxes, a single beer costs the same to produce and distribute as a soft drink and should therefore cost the same.
2. Signature Carbohydrate Comparison
This comparison of the quality of that most basic of all foodstuffs, the carb, uses the Parisian croissant as the benchmark of quality at 100 points.
3. Babe and Hunk Index
Truly civilized places cultivate the arts, among them the sophisticated practice of adorning oneself with a certain sense of style.
4. Street Life Indicator
A measure of the health and vitality of any city is the availability of the stuff of everyday life for sale on the street.
5. Public Order Index
Order is a subtle thing, a balance between over-regimentation and anarchy, measured in this case by the dynamic tension between the number of pedestrian jaywalkers and the traffic flow, as measured by the speed of a taxi trip.

I'll admit instantly dismissing the first three indicators of civilisation, but the last two, street life and public order, are quite interesting.

What do you think?