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.

There are thousands of houses where I live, where the hell would we fit a carpark big enough?

The one I saw in Sweden had little carts like Boris bikes that you could take for shopping and little ones. It was designed so that no house was very far from the outer car-parks anyway. It's not impossible. It was also a community so people helped each other out if they saw someone who needed a hand. It was quite a diverse estate with lots of young families, and older people too. But, well, you know....Scandinavia.

I don't see how it would work for the disabled.

What about trades. They will be thrilled to have to carry tools and materieals for just ten minutes won't they.

Where I used to live I often had to park 5-10 mins walk from my house (very busy London on-street parking). I had a shopping trolley and double buggy in the car to deal with precisely that issue of getting shopping and kids from my car to the house.
Yes it’s an inconvenience but one I’d be very happy to trade in for a car free street.
I totally understand people with certain disabilities needing to park next to their house but people who are completely able-bodied but terrified of a bit of rain 🙄

Oh wow, I love this idea! Can I go one step further and add peddle powered 4 seater family karts, complete with canopy and a little basket for shopping? Holiday parks love these to hire out for visitors getting around. I looked into buying one as we have a great bike infrastructure here and it works be ideal for school runs and going to the shops!

Removal men will love parking 15 mins away

Go ahead, I wouldn’t be living there but like minded people might go for it

I suspect that a lot of these objections are really about time.

So many people have lives that are so loaded with stuff- full time jobs with long commutes, pressure to look insta-ready (hours in gym, salon etc) kids going to a dozen activities, houses needing to look perfect, huge sunk cost is massive car.

They need the car to get to the job to pay for the car in some cases.

Centre parcs have security 24/7 in and around the car park. This wouldn’t be available on housing estates all over the country.

I am backwards and forwards multiple times a day for school runs (mid day one as well as morning and afternoon!), clubs etc - and I work. If I am spending hours of my day traipsing back and forth to my car I can't work

I can't drive due to disability

Tbf removal men and deliveries could be treated by arrival and leaving day at CP, in other words you can drive up to the door.

I used to live in a 1970s ex council that was sort of a courtyard on houses with a green space outside which looked out onto fells and small rear gardens. The communal car park was at one corner so as I was in one of the last houses it was a minute or so walk. Honestly I loved it. Really quite quiet and a range of family types from young family’s through to 90 yr olds. Not the same as a 10 min walk but the open grass at the front of the properties rather than cars was calming and peaceful whilst been a place for kids to play and sit out in summer. I live on a street with a nightmare neighbour who keeps trying to wedge her car right against my kitchen window as she refuses to park more than 15 yards away as it’s in the countryside and dark and honestly I really miss the old house!

(Treated same as arrival and leaving day)

What about tradesmen? Lugging tools and material for 15 mins multiple times a day? Nope. Bat shit for most people.

You understand that literally millions of people will be doing that everyday?

I've literally done it today using this great invention that's like a carriage on wheels, you put the children in the top bit and shopping in the bottom, then just push them along! It's called a buggy or pram.

I mean I can see that it's not absolutely ideal, but come on....

People without cars carefully plan their living to be within easy reach of what they need.
Carless, I lived within 2 min walk of a decent corner shop, library and gym. Direct bus routes to school, work, supermarket and town centre. It was fine.

Current, 2 car, household. My 30min drive to work would involve catching the 6.15 to be at work for 8.
A town centre (or actually, out of town shopping area because town would be worse) would be 2, if not 3, busses. The branch library is a 45 min walk away. Only school is easy without transport - 10 min walk. I don't fancy loosing the car in the current set up.

It easy to say "how do people without cars cope" but their set up is different, and it isn't as easy to just use the methods people with designed car free lives use.

If the infrastructure was there fine. But the way public transport has been decimated drives more and more people to multicar households.

No thanks.

So when I finish work at 3am I've got to walk through a dark estate to get home.

Again, this could be treated the same was CP do on arrival and leaving days.

I work from home. I'm disabled. My car is my lifeline. I can't walk 15 minutes and I've nowhere to store or charge a scooter.

No cars is the USP of centerparcs? Really?

I agree OP, but the attitudes on here so how much people are wedded to their cars: 'Aw no, that's not possible because my lifestyle would have to change slightly!'

Shared car ownership is the future, less reliance on cars and more active travel on foot, bike and scooter to transport hubs that take you further afield. The way we live now is slowly killing us through inactivity and pollution. Not to mention the impact on children's ability to play and explore the world around them.

I think one day we'll look back at the times when everyone drove everywhere and went from car to house to car to shop to car to office as really sad and unhealthy.

Wow this is going down like a lead balloon!

People would hate where I live - at the bottom of a steep hill with limited parking. Sometimes I have to park at the top of the hill. Sometimes even further. Sometimes I have to quickly unload and then move the car. Sometimes I get wet. Sometimes my kid gets wet. Sometimes I have to carry heavy things a short distance. None of this is that hard, just daily life!! We are all too car dependent and will have to become less so in the near future (me included).

I can't walk due to disability. I walk with crutches. I am in pain. I couldn't walk 15 minutes or even 5.