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'm not loaded with stuff ... I need to work full time to pay my ways.
I give a shit about being insta ready.
But I do love to spent my very limited free time doing what I like- not trekking across a housing estate and looking at people's front gardens.

I think the OP would probably like designated parking on the estate for parents and children, like supermarkets, heaven forbid they should not be considered special.

I think that's the thing, if you don't have a car you find ways to cope but if you do then you want to actually use it to drive home, not drive to a carpark and twat around with a trolly in the rain.

You'd need to find a way to design a system that provided for disabled people's needs. Using an electric vehicle eg. I don't think that's a reason for objecting to the whole idea.

Overall, many people would avoid disability if they had more active lives (eg those who lose mobility from age, diabetes etc). For people with disabilities who need motorised transport, travel would be quicker if there were fewer cars around to cause congestion. You could have communal carparks and disabled people could either drive up to their houses or have a scooter or similar for the last part of the journey.

@JudgeJ

The OP doesn't drive

Really? I do none of that stuff, have plenty of time and still wouldn't want to live on one of your proposed estates. Your objections to people's objections are frankly pretty silly.

You are the op?

This thread sums up the mentality of the average British person and their attitude to a car. I agree OP. I can drive, but never have. I walk or cycle everywhere and had three children under 5. It can be done, some people just can't be bothered. I suspect moving forward that this sort of thing will have to happen.

I lived in a new housing estate like that in 1973;; the houses were arranged in groups, the fronts of each group surrounded a traffic free/pedestrian communal green and the only road/ car access was to the rear where the garages, bins and back gardens etc were located. (Scotland). Milton Keynes has better versions.

I'm physically disabled due to a life changing accident. It's not due to not being active enough earlier in life.

Fuck me.

@Chesneyhawkes1 I was just going to say this... when I finish my 13 hour shift (we often do twilights) I wouldn't feel safe doing the walk from a communal car park.

No thanks OP I don't want people bashing my car with their car either!
I always park way away in car parks due to this

I live on a housing estate and there are loads of kids out on bikes, skates etc. Mine included. They do need to learn to manage their safety and be taught road sense. The fact is, there are cars, and the CP idea will never happen in this country.
My nephew on the other hand has never been out to play because his parents are afraid he'll get run over. He is 9 and cannot cross the road outside his house without supervision, and this is nowhere near a main road (tiny traffic calmed road).

I used to live somewhere without dedicated parking (flat on the high street). Sometimes I had to walk a few minutes. It was fine, even with a newborn.

I bet 90% of drivers would cope just fine, and for the remaining 10% solutions could be found.

You won’t melt?

This would drive me mad with two young kids. Imagine trying to get two small children. The shopping. Nursery crap work crap all in the house 10 min walk away in the dark pissing rain. No thanks. I'll take the kids to the park to let them roam free

God no. Absolutely no way I’m traipsing backwards and forwards to my camper van with camping stuff every time I fancy a weekend away. Bad enough having to lug it all downstairs and across the car park at my flat as it is. We don’t all have space to store trailers etc. Plus I’d want bloody good security 24 hours a day so who would pay for that.

For the situation with 2 kids and shopping an ideal solution exists. The (electric) cargobike.

I live this way and it is fine.

What the UK really needs to do is plan things better so no one on a housing estate is more than a safe walk or bike ride away from schools and shops.

It's about the sunk cost of the car, isn't it?

I know I'm fortunate not to have that burden

Listen to the people having to moan about walking 10 minutes in the rain while the planet burns and kids are trapped inside without fresh air or exercise. Where’s the sense of perspective?! Yes, life might be slightly less convenient, but it would be amazing in other ways. Unfortunately it won’t happen OP until we reach some kind of crisis, people are too short-sighted.

Not at all.

It's about the fact that I physically can't walk for 15 minutes and have nowhere to store an electric scooter.

Where would it even stay in the car park? Would there be one available to me when I needed it?

From what I've read Vauban in Freiburg in Germany is a bit like this. Some residents do have cars but they have to park them in carparks at the edge of the district. Maybe it could work for new developments in the UK as anyone moving in would be prepared for this from the outset. For example there's a big brownfield development planned near the train station in my town, so in theory not everyone will need or have a car.

I am sorry that my disability is single handedly burning the planet 🙄

Gosh the responses show just how car centric (and lazy!) some people are! We are swiftly becoming the slobs from Wall-E stuck in armchairs glued to screens.

a ten minute walk is entirely feasible for many (and exemptions would be in place in OPs example for those who it is not.) a society like this would be far healthier, happier and a much better use of space than the two up, two down, two cars parked in each drive way towns we have at the moment (or worse - cars on the pavement so disabled people or those with prams can’t even get along the street!)

Brilliant idea. It would mean that these estates don't have any less able-bodied people, because either they don't qualify for a blue badge (or do but have been refused one because of the shitty system); or they have one but don't fancy being singled out and criticised for "breaking the rules". Segregating disabled people into a separate area, where the real, valid members of society can't see them, can only be a good thing.

You could have communal carparks and disabled people could either drive up to their houses or have a scooter or similar for the last part of the journey. Have you ever met a disabled person? Getting from a car onto a mobility scooter is not an easy task. Many less-able-bodied people try very hard not to use walking aids because they don't want to rely on them - why do you think you know better than they do about what they need for their physical and mental health?

The ableism is strong on this thread. "Well I chose to do it so everyone else can". No they can't, learn some empathy. Maybe talk to people who have mobility issues and find out why the world has been developed to make it hard for them to live in it.

@daybroke

You'd get a bluebadge in this universe