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 live close to a housing estate built in the 70's which is similar what you describe. Most cars are in car parks and walkways go up to most people's front doors.

The reality is not as good as your suggesting dark walkways between car parks and homes. cars get vandalised/ broken into in the car parks. Trying to get prams/ kids / shopping down narrow pathways to get to your front door seems a struggle. Also delivery drivers seem unwilling to actually find the correct house according to the local Facebook page.

Clearly written by someone who doesn't get rural life.

My son's football is 10 miles away from the house. He trains twice per week. He does use public transport there but would struggle to get home. Nothing more local. It's also where his school is too.

Almost all who live in my small town who have hobbies travel as there is very little locally.

And a very high percentage work outside the town and most will drive due to woeful public transport. I work in the closest city. But couldn't get there directly on public transport. It would be approx 2 hours each way. And that's if the buses fall at the right times to get me to and from work. Which they don't.

It's a great place to live, I much prefer where I am than the city. But it does mean a car is not a convenience- it's much more necessary.

Oh, it will be interesting to see who buys there.

if it's popular, that's grand.

I would hate to see it imposed on people, especially as it seems most likely councils would "trial" it on people.

Cars in flat complexes are not guarded by security, unless you are talking about a posh private complex?
The cars at the tower block where my mum lived was always getting vandalised or broken into.
I know people steal supermarket trolleys to use but you are not supposed to. Our ASDA has a system so trolleys do not work if you leave their ;and, the wheels just lock.

Exactly, this has already been tried.

They have done that on some areas, was very unpopular became sink estates, crime ridden

My residential car park is about 2-3 mins walk, fine without small children but next door has to park on the double yellows to unload then parks around the back

Not everyone who has difficulty walking is disabled some haven't got that far down the disability road yet but a 10 15 minute walk would ruin the rest of the day. Imagine getting twins under 1 your 3 year old and your 5 year old out the door and carrying baby bag, school lunches, the amazing life size model homework etc in pouring rain. It would take 10 mins to get them all in to pushchair then get to car take 10 mins or more getting coats back off into car seats pushchair into car etc. It would kill shops nobody would visit a store and have to carry it the other end ...a shuttle service would require a lot of shuttles carrying goods or you're going to be waiting to cook tea or have a cuppa.
Centre parks allows cars in on arrival days but in your estate how would anybody get their cases to a car or move granny's fridge?

Except, within 30 seconds of it being implemented, this is what we'd have on Mumsnet:

• You'd all be fighting to claim exemptions, coming up with all manner of daft reasons why you can't carry things from the car park to your car

• Then you'd be pointing and accusing anyone who drives up the street, in case your precious DC gets mown down - failing to see that you're one of them

I have no problem not using my car 90% of the time. I live in a small town so can easily walk most places and have towed shopping back home in a camping wagon on a few occasions. Parking the car further away wouldn't be a problem apart from the fact I paid a premium for a house that has a suitable driveway and garage. Other houses on my street don't have these. Why should I suddenly not be able to store my own property in the place I paid a premium for?

Do I get that money back from someone?

Also, these car parks are going to be built on greenbelts or green spaces. I'd rather have access to green spaces that see them turned into car parks

In the estates I saw you wouldn't. Essentially as far as I remember the ample car parks were on the outer ring of and estate that faced inwards round a green space. No-one was anything like 15 minutes from their car park. I think the difference is that estates here are huge, whereas in Sweden they were on a much more human scale. I think there are big traffic free estates in the Netherlands, but then, everybody cycles there. Presumably it's possible to design such an estate which makes provisions for disabled people having access to transport. It's not as inflexible or proscribed as people are trying to make out.

I do tend to walk quite a bit but I draw the line at walking 10-15 mins to my car at 4:30 in the morning to get DC to their training session and we certainly don't have another 10-15 mins leeway to do the same on the way home as we have to get in, breakfast and out the door again for school.

Where do you put child/children and 6 bags of shopping? Or is it better to go shopping for 1 bag at a time?

I grew up in the country. I do get it. My parents did a lot of driving and I spent all my pocket money on unreliable buses.

No one is saying cars would be banned overnight. But we'll probably be less reliant on them in future. More people are living in urban/suburban areas where it would be fairly easy to live without them.

Then they should try it in a middle class estate. Let middle class buy houses like this if they want it.

In the 70s I played on our street cars were infrequent so football on the road was fine....the car park you lived by wouldn't be quiet at anytime now, not big enough and dangerous at night.

What's a sunk cost?

What has rural life got to do with urban housing estates?

So she should stay in doors because she's not yet disabled enough to be disabled nice....how did you find staying in for lockdown let alone life?

I live in a rural town. Housing estates exist there too.

The problem is, so many people have designed their lives around car ownership. They cant imagine managing without

People need to realise that they could lose their licence tomorrow, for some relatively mild but unexpected medical problem, such as a vertigo attack, or similar, and they would HAVE to manage their lives without driving, from that moment on

I think this is a feature of the current generation though, who have grown up very entitled. Previous generations didnt base their lives on private car ownership, and future generations wont either

How would I load heavy stuff into my pick up truck?

What's a rural town? That's just a town.

Moving house would be hell too! Imagine taking your sofa, bed, etc on a milk float.

Nimbo many of us did give up driving for health reasons, I haven't driven for 20 years. Still don't want to see this imposed. If people want to buy in that type of place, great. But the likelihood is government imposing it on places that already exist.