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.

Same with anything. You could lost your sight, ability to walk, mental faculties. Many things.

No

A holiday park setup like this is great for a week but not longer term. They allow you on to the park when you arrive / leave to unload your car, get shopping in etc. Then the rest of the week you don't have loads to carry because you're on holiday. You don't have to get anywhere quickly. Real life isn't really like that. Plus the electric chargers at Bluestone are always being used so we can never get any charge which sucks - there would need to be good charging capacity in the communal car park.

Nah. You're being unreasonable. Just because you can't drive, doesn't mean the rest of us should be penalised.

A driveway is a must for me. Getting a full load of shopping from car to house was a pain when I lived on a terraced street with no driveways. I had to walk up and down the street several times locking the car and my front door in between loads. It was extra miserable in the rain.

60% is not everyone....is it...so yes the well off had fridges but not every person had one in fact just over half didn't and this lady didn't....my mum didn't either are you saying we are lying

I'm with you OP. I'm an immigrant to the Netherlands and had no idea until recently that like the UK this country was heavily designed around cars up until the 1960s and 1970s. Dutch mothers decided they were fed up of their kids being hit by cars and began a series of street sit-ins and other demonstrations demanding that it stop. This little video is about 15 mins long so maybe too dull to sit through the whole thing but it's a brilliant summary of how huge car parks became walkable neighbourhoods. I no longer own a car and I doubt I ever will again. I'm also disabled and very much appreciate being able to safely cycle everywhere as I NEVER could in England. I can have a life here.

I live in a small Rural village.

One shop.

No pub.

Football pitch and a play park are the only amenity for children

No primary school (4 miles away) and no secondary school.

There's one bus in and one bus out every day.

There are two council estates of about 50 house and 30 houses and two private owned estates one of about 100 and one of about 40

The land near the council estates has had the private estates built on it and the private estates are surrounded by farmland that isn't zoned for development.

Where are these car parks going to go when existing estates are converted as is your plan?

15 mins away along a dark unlit country road with no pavements? Only the centre of the village and the estates themselves are pavemented. Nowhere else is.

I can't walk to a chemist if I wanted to its 6 miles away as is the doctor.

It's completely different to living in a town.

It’s been raining almost every day since September in my area of Scotland. It’s also windy at and you want me to walk with my shopping for 15 minutes???

No they don't, they also don't know how physically hard it is even for a carer to undo it all and load it in the boot after the disabled person has transferred. Or how you invalidate guarantees if they get wet how much they cost or how difficult it can be to negotiate some paths ...they probably want a few pretty cobbles just to add to it.

I think this is a great idea! My sister lives in a co housing development, shared cars with charging points at the end of the pedestrian street, bulk food deliveries, trollies to take things and kids from one end to the other, communal play spaces indoor and outdoor, for different ages. It's not utopia and it is not for everyone, but it is nice.

No it isn't.

No or very limited infrastructure. Few if any shops. Limited public transport. Limited employment opportunities.

I used to help out with a charity and one of the buzz phrases when applying for grants is "we stay in an area of rural deprivation"

In Scotland, where I am, a rural settlement is one with less than 3,000 people. So a rural town.

I absolutely loved lock down. Frankly because people stayed away. No people no cars.

but people are lazy. My nearest village has a carpark. Right in the middle as its one road, terraced houses . Yet they oark on the road , and a very narrow one too.

its being lazy. Makes the village untidy

So now not only do you have to find more time each week to shop more regularly in more expensive local shops with less stock but if you do have a delivery it has to come on the time slot and day your given not when you need it having been in hospital or holiday a few weeks.

People who don't have cars either can't afford them so are already forced into inconvenience and expensive shops or have made that lifestyle choice built their lives around it, are physically able and are either not scared to wander around in dark lonely places at night happily watching cars get vandalised and people being attacked or stay in after dark.

I meant that it had been built in the 70s, I lived there 3 years ago….

Rural town.

The town my kids go to school in. If I want to buy knickers or shoes my only choice is a small Tesco.

The buses are rubbish outside of school hours.

There's no decent restaurants. No cinema. Nothing for kids.

About 5 farm supplies shops and 27 coffee shops though (but they all close at 5pm)

"Do I leave my kids in the car while I traipse back and forward with all my shopping!?"

No they're all whizzing around on bikes living their lives through the OPs rose tinted glasses 🤣

My school run takes 20 mins there and 20 mins back. I do it twice a day. A 15 min walk to and from my car each time would steal an hour a day from me.

my db has a broken ankle with metal in it. If I can’t drive up to the door, I can’t get him to hospital.

The OP is not saying that all housing estates should be converted or that people in rural villages should give up their cars. Some people are taking this in a really extreme way. OP is also not saying that the cars should be a 10 minutes walk away 🙄. Some people really like to get wound up about nothing.

The 10 min walk was OP second post.

Also it is unhealthy how the UK is so dependent on cars. Even in cities the situation is dire.

There's lots of people that can't drive. Be that because they are too young, too old, too poor, disabled or because they just don't want to. By making the UK so car-centric essential services and shops are not reachable cycling/walking you are excluding them.

This suggests converting existing estates.

OP YANBU.

We seem to structure our whole lived environment around vehicles. What if we centred people? What if we centred children? Once you start imagining it, it's hard to switch off.

For example, picture a T junction, with a minor road on to the major road. What if the pavements continued at the same height, and the cars were expected to go up and down? This would be more convenient for the pedestrians, and slow the vehicles down, making it safer.

I can only think that the people who think this is a wonderful idea have never seen the actual reality which is exactly as above. As far as I can recall the ones I know were designed by a Scandinavian architect, it simply hasn't worked in the UK.

Ok granted 10 might be excessive. I used to live 3 minutes walk from my car. Even with a newborn it wasn't as big of a deal as people on here are making it out to be.

Both my brothers live a 5 minute cycle/10 minutes away from their car, because they live in a city centre and don't want to shell out for a permit. Does it suck sometimes? Absolutely. But they just deal with it.

What makes you think that successful designs from Scandinavia and the Netherlands can't be copied to the UK?