Riding Chocobos in town?

[Preypacer]

There are cutscenes that show Ul'dah as a bustling city with people riding chocobo-drawn carriages down the city streets. I'd love it if the city actually looked that way (and not just in cutscenes now and again), so I'm all for mounts being rideable on city streets.

Watch the opening again.

The only chocobos you see in that opening are the ones pulling the wagon your character arrives on, and the ones pulling the parade wagons. In all cases, they are being used as beasts of burden and are tethered.

At no point do you see single chocobos being ridden by any citizens, not even by a city guard. Furthermore, you don't see NPCs riding around on Chocobos in-game either.

So, your idea that you could see tethered and restrained chocobos drawing around large carriages or wagons carrying travelers is conceivable. However, it still wouldn't support having dozens of individuals riding around, or standing around cluttering everything up and blocking vendors, doorways, stairways, etc. with large yellow birds.

There's no reason to believe that wouldn't be the case, because it is in any other MMO I've played where you are allowed ride mounts in a city or town area. If people are going to be hanging out in a city for a prolonged period of time, chances are they're spending a lot of time sitting or standing in one spot, or running relatively short distances. Why would you need a large mount to stand in one spot, or to run short distances?

Weighing the convenience of "not having to run a minute or two - max - on foot", against all the issues it would cause having them all over the place... the result is pretty obvious to me: People riding chocobos in town is a bad idea.