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.

As mentioned above I lived in a small development like this with neighbours who had 3 kids. It wouldn’t suit everyone but I think I’m the bigger picture we should be encouraging more people to be active. Please don’t think I’m been ableist here as I think as long as the gov thinks we can rely on cars they won’t do anything to improve access and usability on public transport or increase the availability. I use my car for work mainly as there is no other options.

I don't have a car, yes I manage. But I still think this is an awfull idea. I do a large shop and get a taxi home, no way would I want to carry 10 shoppng bags across the estate (hense the taxi).

great if you work locally and all your activities are local
for me to drive to work 20 mins
rail or bus more then 90

@daybroke

A blue badge would mean that you could park on your drive

I stated in the OP that blue badge holders would be exempt.

Do you mean build new housing estates op?

I took "make housing estates like" to be convert existing housing estates.

God,I’d hate this, I lived once on a busy road with no private parking and often had to walk to my car. Total ballache with shopping bags and kids, or for loading up for nights away plus when it was cold or wet , no thanks . Bloody miserable

i suspect as you don’t drive it’s all you know op. But those of us who do, know the utter convenience of a car parked on the drive, and wouldn’t give it up

I think done kind of middle ground between like CP and like we have now would be good. Any parking available would need electricity points for charging cars. Fir new estates the communal car park would t be too far away anyway surely.

Public transport needs a major overhaul as do a lot of attitudes. Out of ds's class only one other family walk to school. We are some of the furthest from school too- over a mile.there's used to be. School bus but not for a few years now.

People are very attached to their cars and the convenience they bring. Modern lifestyles rely on them too.

I found with center parcs that most people thought the car rules did not apply to them.
Saw a moorhen run over by a speeding car slap bang in the middle of the so called car free hours there

Lovely idea, ruined by dicks.

You are envisioning a lovely open plan, grassy estate. The first one or two might be like that, then the developers would just take the opportunity to cram as many homes as possible into the space and it would become a concrete jungle.

Most people where I live can't cope with walking for more than three minutes. I see literally a handful who regularly walk down the town, and everyone else drives. Most people are painfully lazy. It frustrates me as I grew up walking places and not being dependent on a car.

So hold on. People have drives outside their houses that are designed for their cars to be parked on when not being used and you expect them to park their cars miles away and walk because ?

Also. For a long time I had no blue badge. I'm not any more disabled now than I was then I've just had help to fill in the pip form. And because I get pip I can have a bb.

What about people like that?

My mother didn't learn to drive until I was 14. When we were small she had a pram with my baby brother in it, my younger brother on it in a chair thing and me walking by the side of it. She shopped every day because there were no fridges then ( I'm 57). The shopping went in the tray under the pram. She doesn't remember it as a utopian idyll. It was hard work, time consuming, inefficient and awful. She is 83 now and entirely healthy. She wouldn't qualify for any form of mobility concession but couldn't carry shopping from her car and walk 10 minutes home. She wouldn't be comfortable going out to the theatre at night and parking away from her house. It would make her life smaller.

This made me laugh... i have 2 kids under 5 and no car. To get to the shops, my 4yo walks, the 2yo is in the buggy which i load up with shopping bags. I wear a big bag on my back full of shopping and 2 tote bags under each arm. I do a weeks shopping this way, rain or shine and walk 15 mins to and from sainsburys, and i live in a very hilly place! Where theres a will theres a way.

Carrying stuff to and from the car would be the issue for me. It's a pain enough when we can park right outside our building. Especially for moving or buying something really heavy or awkward like furniture.

@Meseekslookatme

There's always one but I thought it worked really well

There already bringing in the zones you can only drive round in several areas of the country, trying to limit where we go in the car we pay road tax for, whilst they swan around in their gas guzzlers

People are very imaginative when it comes to all the reasons why this wouldn't work, but don't seem to grasp how much we've embedded 'needing' cars in society and can't imagine a way we go back to a society where far fewer people have cars (and households don't have 2 or more vehicles).

We live in places we couldn't commute to without a car (myself included). We build neighbourhoods that aren't walkable from GP surgeries, nurseries, schools. We prioritise road traffic over walkability. All these things weren't the case not that long ago and could be changed - but so many people are unable to grasp that lots of us only 'need' cars because we think we do.

I'm guilty of it myself: I grew up in a family without a car (so my mum did plenty of big shops via the bus with 2 small children!) and didn't pass my test until my mid-20s. Until then I got by in many of the scenarios listed without a car: I got to the GP when I was ill, the hospital in a semi-emergency, visited friends, commuted to work, did my big shop, etc etc etc. I did it by living near public transport, choosing my job and housing with distance in mind, etc. Now I have a car and live 50 miles from work and 5 miles from my dentist and so on... and can't fathom not having it: but I managed perfectly well before, I just made choices differently now that I do.

But if we improved public transport and built many more 10 minute neighbourhoods (or retroactively created them), the vast majority of people would cope fine without a car directly outside their house, they just don't think they could because they're not used to it.

I love this idea so much and I’d happily live there.
I also think all city centres should be car free and everyone should get around in pedal powered cars (like pédalos on wheels) Reduce pollution and the need for gym membership.

Oh ffs.

I see we’re back in “disability is mostly peoples own fault” land.

I’ve had cancer. It wasn’t lack of effort at staying fit. It was a massive lump on my thyroid. Due to it I am currently constantly knackered. Not my fault. And if despite my best efforts my bloods continue to be deranged and I slip into type 2 diabetes that also won’t be my fault. Sometimes bodies just don’t cooperate with getting better.

I have a family member who was hale and hearty and danced regularly until she suddenly developed crippling arthritis at 70.

I have another who also danced regularly but died recently at 96. She still wouldn’t have been recognised as having a disability (old does not count) but could not have walked ten minutes.

You can be as virtuous as you like, bodies don’t last forever

How do you envisage deliveries etc will work?

Deliveries? moving? builders? trades? emergency services?

@housemaus I live in a rural village near where my ex lived all his life

We have zero public transport only the school bus in and out.

I am looking at moving now my youngest is left school as it's difficult for me but I can't afford to buy in town.

I've thought this. It's lovely to just let my kid cycle.

There are barriers, shopping is the biggie. If groceries could be delivered I'd just do that to live somewhere car free.

Commuting would be an extra step but I'd happily accept a 3 min cycle added to my commute to live somewhere without cars.. given it would be a car free cycle I could even put my toddler in a passenger seat.

Yeah, they can come in when necessary.

Where is the space to build the car park coming from?