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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

809 replies

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 12:38

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.

OP posts:
MajorCarolDanvers · 10/01/2023 13:30

It's a nice idea but I wouldn't chose to live in one.

Cherry8809 · 10/01/2023 13:30

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:20

@JudgeJ

The OP doesn't drive

But I do, and I don’t fancy parking 15 mins away from my house 😊

daybroke · 10/01/2023 13:31

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:30

@daybroke

You'd get a bluebadge in this universe

That doesn't answer where would the electric scooter be stored I don't have room in my house and I couldn't get one into my garden to put in a shed of any kind. And how would it be ensured there was one even available to me when I returned to the car park?

user1468656818 · 10/01/2023 13:31

OPs post mentioned exemptions for blue badge holders.

Original poster
QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:31

@LordEmsworth

So we fix the blue badge system.

You might want to read through my posts above. You can sort by OP

OP posts:
user1468656818 · 10/01/2023 13:32

marmaladepop · 10/01/2023 12:53

I have a chronic bad back but am nowhere near being registered disabled. Carrying shopping/anything when it flares is so painful. I'd never live anywhere where I couldn't be near my car.

You could get shopping delivered?

daybroke · 10/01/2023 13:32

This thread really is ableist.

Sirzy · 10/01/2023 13:32

Having access only for certain groups wokld actually risk making it more dangerous for children playing out etc because they wouldn’t be expecting any traffic and so may not be as careful.

what we need is to make sure we are protecting green spaces and safe play areas and making sure they stay accessible.

Original poster
QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:32

@daybroke

Where do you put you car?

OP posts:
Primroseprimula · 10/01/2023 13:32

Perhaps just build new houses with adequate parking and roads with properly enforced low speed limits and give people a choice.

Making people walk 15 minutes to their car won't reduce car use when public transport and cycle infrastructure are so poor. it will just add an pointless inconvenience for people who can't afford a house with a driveway, wasting their precious spare time to make some urban planner feel virtuous.

NashvilleQueen · 10/01/2023 13:33

I've seen ideas for the future of electric and driverless cars where it won't park on your drive but take itself off somewhere to charge after dropping you off and then you'd call it when you want to go somewhere. A bit like a driverless Uber.

I'm all in for that.

daybroke · 10/01/2023 13:33

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:32

@daybroke

Where do you put you car?

On my drive. Which only takes one car. And my car sits outside.

A mobility scooter wouldn't fit on my drive and I have no dry storage for it and given that they aren't completely watertight the seat etc would get wet and mouldy.

EezyOozy · 10/01/2023 13:33

*I manage shopping and a child without a car. I don't drive due to disability.

My mother and grandmother did it too.

What's changed?*

one child and a small amount of shopping ? Not so difficult . 2, 3 , 4 children including a baby and bags of shopping or large household items - impossible.

truly dreadful idea.

PerilousErection · 10/01/2023 13:34

2bazookas · 10/01/2023 13:24

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 grew up on an estate like that. Service roads to the rear, walk through the garage and garden into the kitchen. 8 houses facing each other on a green. Footpaths everywhere. I went back at Christmas and the green fronts were overgrown- our old house didn't even have a front path anymore. All the footpaths were covered in litter and looked unsafe. Cars parked all over the service roads.

thunderstruckk · 10/01/2023 13:34

I wouldn't be up for this - I wouldn't park our expensive cars a 10 minute walk away for any reason, a lot of estates have drives for cars to be parked on which is a huge convenience factor.

People do lots of things on holiday because it's a novelty - that doesn't mean it would work well or practically in real life. I also would wonder how all of the electric vehicles would be charged / paid for!

New estates should have adequate parking, speed bumps and speed limits. People should drive more considerately. Children shouldn't be taught to play in the road without being very careful and realistically new estates should have better facilities for kids to play on.

Original poster
QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:35

@daybroke

Disability is the reason I don't drive

You'd get a blue badge (that system needs fixing I know)

OP posts:
Swg · 10/01/2023 13:35

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 12:46

Why not exactly?

A ten or 15 min walk to a communal car park would probably do most of us some good.

Yeah but then there’s the rest of us it wouldn’t do any good and they’re a bit stuffed.

You wake up feeling absolutely dreadful and need to get to your GP - you want to walk 10 minutes feeling like crap? You’re post op and can just about hobble for a few weeks until you’re better - guess you better be housebound. You have a tiny baby to carry in a car seat who is bloody heavy, you’re doing a massive clear out of your house and need to take all your stuff to the tip, or even your kid is asleep and you want to sit with them in the driveway and drink coffee rather than wake them.

ladymacbeth · 10/01/2023 13:35

This is a thing, it's called a 10mins tell neighbourhood

user1468656818 · 10/01/2023 13:35

Primroseprimula · 10/01/2023 13:32

Perhaps just build new houses with adequate parking and roads with properly enforced low speed limits and give people a choice.

Making people walk 15 minutes to their car won't reduce car use when public transport and cycle infrastructure are so poor. it will just add an pointless inconvenience for people who can't afford a house with a driveway, wasting their precious spare time to make some urban planner feel virtuous.

Might help with considering whether people genuinely need to take the car for some trips or whether they could walk in the first place. A huge number of journeys are under 2 miles.

ladymacbeth · 10/01/2023 13:35

*10 minute neighbourhood

EmmaEmerald · 10/01/2023 13:36

Horrible idea but this is where it's headed

pp saying lack of mobility due to age can be avoided - what?!

I don't drive btw.

daybroke · 10/01/2023 13:36

QuertyGirl · 10/01/2023 13:35

@daybroke

Disability is the reason I don't drive

You'd get a blue badge (that system needs fixing I know)

I have a blue badge.

How is that going to help the problem I just described to you?

CuteOrangeElephant · 10/01/2023 13:36

The OP also doesn't say that everyone has to live on such a housing estate or that all existing housing should be converted.

My in-laws live on a horrible housing estate with endless houses and not many amenities. Guess what, FIL crashed his car, isn't really safe to drive anymore and is now effectively stuck in his house. If the housing estate had been planned better, so more cycle paths and pavements, local shops etc his life would be much improved. He would love it if he could take a small electric bike/trike to the shops.

EezyOozy · 10/01/2023 13:36

Allow people to park the car outside the house for unloading only. Then drive back to the car park. It's not rocket science.

But then what’s the point? They may as well just leave it outside the house and drive the car away from the house next time they need to use the car, rather than driving the car between the house and the car park?

princesssparklepants · 10/01/2023 13:36

Think something like Cp would be good.

I can totally understand peoples objections to it but some are easily dealt with if you really sat and thought about it.

Shopping/kids - community bikes and trailers. Similar to centre parks but could also have those beach buggy type things too.

Disable - motorised scooters

Central hub for deliveries

It's a nice idea OP but sadly not something I think we would see done here.... at least not down well!

I think there is a council flat people in Vienna? That has its own drs, own schools, own shops, own fitness centre and swimming pool, play park. All well maintained, and lived in by council tenants.
I'd like to see something like that in this country and again I doubt it will happen as it has no way to make anyone a millionaire...