To think we could make housing estates like Center Parcs re cars

[QuertyGirl]

The USP of Centre Parcs is for many, the fact that they are mostly car free. Kids can play out and ride their bikes like I did when I was kid.

Can't do that now due to the amount of cars, speed and size of cars and, attitude of some car drivers.

People (including myself) pay a small fortune to holiday at CP.

Why can't we make housing estates more like that?

Communal car parks in walking distance, deliveries by small electric vehicles from a hub (like old fashioned milk floats), exemptions for blue badge holders and funding for electric mobility scooters for those that need them.

Yet, if the council suggests a couple of cycle lane and all hell breaks loose.

I drive a 4WD because it's 6 or 7 miles to a gritted road in the winter. It was bought when I had to collect kids from school (see my previous post) and I will run it til it is done and no longer economic to repair. Maybe by that stage I'll be so crippled I'll get one of them there free cars.

We have lots of Housing Estates in Dorset where there are roads for the cars and the next road is all path ways to back gardens it is then a MASSIVE u shape of grass around the outside of the whole area, with parks and bike paths.
I think there are about 500 houses, a;; accessed from a single road of the main road. I HATED IT.

Honestly this thread is actually making me grateful that I don't drive.

I'd hate to be so dependent on a machine like that, not to mention the cost.

Lots of sympathy for those who have no choice.

Wall-E was one of the scariest visions of the future

"Why would these people need exemptions?"

If they have to spend more time travelling they spend less time with their client and social care is already problematic. Likewise for family carers. Ds has a blue badge but we need to be home quickly to care for him. Sen school transport is door to door because no one wants a distressed child before they even get to school.

People who suggest these sorts of things are always people who for whatever reason don't work full time out of the home.

When you have two parents woh 40h a week, you have so little time you simply cannot lose 15 mins 3 or 4 times a day walking to & from your car.

I have no time. None. My life mon- fri is regularly spent rushing from A to B and worrying i'll be late and im lucky enough to wfh!

I feel for you. I don't think that's good for anyone and increases in working from home and shorter working weeks, might help alleviate it.

Our kids might have a better work / life balance at least

Interested to hear the plan to ensure the safety of lone women (and indeed men) arriving home from shift work at unsociable hours.

You are so inspirational. You did it so we should all do it too. Thank you so much for making this thread.

well I agree with this @QuertyGirl haters gonna hate😕 and making cycling the norm, I love quiet and dark and CP gets it right, all the playgrounds would be nice too, we all pay so much for our housing, let's make it pleasant to live there. we don't all need our cars next to us all the time 🤷🏽‍♀️

I used to live here when I was young. It was great for kids - there were main roads going through, with parking, and garaging, but the estate itself was all houses around different greens, and play areas. It never seemed to be a huge issue for shopping etc. I dont even think we had a car for alot of the time

Weirdly of all the towns in the UK, Bracknell is built a bit like this. It has a road network to your door but it has a path and cycle path network entirely separate from the road. You can ride from one side to the other only having to cross about 3 roads, and with the majority of your journey being away from the roads. It's actually a kind of neat design.

It's also in a forest that rents bikes, has a water park.... 🤣🤣🤣🤯

If you've been paying Road Tax after all this time, you must be due 85 years worth of refunds.

Cars are convenient. But we lived without them before and we could do so again. There might just be some adjustment to lifestyles.

Eg you probably wouldn't expect to send your kids to scouts if you're ten miles away from the nearest hut. You'd factor that in when you chose a house. It might result in more scout huts, who knows?

I live in a city and would happily give up my car if the puluc transport was less shit.

I'm sure if it's popular and profitable, developers will get on to it.

They won't. When you let developers develop as they wish you end up like the current situation. No regards for anything but their own pockets.

People stay where their networks are - we did when we married, we can't decimate the farming and rural community even more by insisting they commute to their employment every day from the towns. Who's going to look after the animals? Make sure the farm vehicles don't get nicked?

It’s a lovely lovely idea, but what happens when you need to load or unload something heavy?

But if the idea is so popular, surely people will pay to live in a place like the OP describes? /sarcasm

We would like to live somewhere like this, when we were abroad over xmas we visited an ‘estate’ similar to this as my husbands Grandma has a friend who lives on one.

I see some people are putting in imaginery barriers, with shopping, if anyone has ever lived in a flat complex they’ll be used to communal trollies to transport shopping, or a concierge and security for those who want their car to have its own bodyguard.

A few people seem to not want such areas to exist purely because they don’t want to live on them, the solution there is to not choose to buy one, pretty simple!

Road tax LOL!
Vehicle emissions duty. To compensate for the damage cars do to the environment. You're not personally building the roads.
I live on an estate and lots of people are walking to school. We have to cross the road 6 times and it's terrifying, people speeding, not indicating and cars parked across pavements. A council truck blocked the entire pavement one morning because he didn't want to inconvenience the cars - but expected a group of 5 year olds to walk round him in a busy road.
Our mindset on cars is a mess.

For me, time constraints and distance from work and schools

This place is giving out a go www.port-loop.com/island-rules

Insurance costs could be a problem if the car is parked effectively away from the home address overnight.

It wouldn't be for me. And I say that as someone who doesn't have their own drive.

Shopping is a problem. I don't use online shopping so I don't want to have to walk 10 -15 minutes with a weeks worth of shopping.

Your insurance cost would be higher because developments like this that already exist attract more car crime.