Mass transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians are “more important” than motorists, who clog up the roads, Mayor Bloomberg said today.

Speaking at a transportation conference at New York University, Bloomberg said people often forget streets weren’t made for cars.

“The streets were there to transport people,” he said. “They are not for cars … One of the original ways was walking.”

Mass transit is the only way to stop the economy-crushing gridlock that plagues urban centers, he said.

“Cyclists and pedestrians and bus riders are as important, if not, I would argue more important, than automobile riders,” he said.

Nothing can be done to stop truck traffic – which delivers most goods into the city – but mass transit can help ease congestion, he said.

“Mass transit is the only way to work ourselves out of congestion,” he said.

Bloomberg told the roomful of transportation wonks at the Designing Cities conference – hosted by city Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan – that New York was remarkably safe.

“You can walk through this city if you’re a woman during the daytime in any neighborhood in the city and not have to look over your shoulder,” he said.

At night there’s only a handful to avoid, he said.

“If it wasn’t for iPhones and iPads our crime rate would be dramatically lower,” he said.

He joked, “They (crooks) take iPhone 5’s but they don’t take Galaxy 3s.”