15 minute cities

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fillyboy said:
I quite liked the plan they had for Staines (or a mile outside of) a few years back, 'Motopia', wasn't far off the planning stage either.

www.smithsonianmag.com

Motopia: A Pedestrian Paradise

Visit the futuristic town where drivers and non-drivers live in perfect harmony
www.smithsonianmag.com www.smithsonianmag.com

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That sounds dangerously close to the dystopian dream of Robert Moses who 'was the all-powerful planner and developer of a host of New York’s biggest civic undertakings, including Shea Stadium, Jones Beach, the Bronx River Parkway, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Lincoln Center, and two world’s fairs. He saw himself as the builder of a brave new world, where the poor would be housed in tall, clean, uniform superblocks on the outskirts of cities. The filthy slums they vacated—“cancerous growths,” in his words—would be torn down to make room for parks, arts centers, and expressways. If the uprooted tenants didn’t want to move, or didn’t like the airy towers they were moved into, too bad. “Our greatest single problem is tenant removal.”

UDG.org
 
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fillyboy said:
Yep, circumnavigate via the ring road or motorway to enter the city via a different entry point to avoid a penalty, but use more fuel and create more pollution in the process, which the idea is supposedly meant to alleviate.

More to the point, how long before the ring roads become restricted areas, and you're locked in your own 'zone'.
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Paranoid much?
 
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fillyboy said:
More detail and interesting critique here.
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Something vaguely similar did happen. There are a few places that are arranged in a certain way. eg Milton Keynes and expanded Redditch. It's based on arterial roads and tends to keep traffic away from housing areas. Large shopping centres may figure. Many places have pedestrian only shopping areas - where they can be achieved. I know one where people can drive in but only to pick stuff up from one shop that sells TV's etc but only when they are actually picked up. An obliging council. Not all are.

I haven't driven through Milton Keynes for a rather long time but when doing that people could conclude no one lived there. ;) If I had someone with me I'd show them the plastic cows as some didn't believe me.

Redditch is a bit weird. In one area the way to find a major road is too look down a side road - see an armco barrier - that's the route out. There may be a more usual way to get where you have been. LOL confusing.

UK house building currently. Match boxes all crammed together is tending to figure. Some other countries seem to have got into apartment blocks and space. ;) We tried high rise, some with space. Willenhall is going to get a mini garden city. To keep their shops active they need jobs. Disappearing shops concerns the people living in a number of areas.
 
IT Minion said:
I don't get the fear some people have of reducing the use of rat runs through residential areas.
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It's nothing to do with 'fear.' All they're doing with schemes like this is displacing traffic to other streets and/or essentially forcing residents to start walking/cycling more or use public transport. That's fine if you're able to do so and if there's a brilliant public transport system, however that's far from always being the case. To me, the thing that has to underpin all of this across the UK, in all areas, is to ensure public transport delivers an excellent service at reasonable costs.

However, public transport still can't take you door to door can it, so we're back to things like your safety when walking at night or in secluded areas from the bus stop to your home.
 
So what your saying not only better transport links but a restoration of law and order. I can't see that happening I think they prefer us all locked up frightened to go out after dusk.
 
gant said:
So what your saying not only better transport links but a restoration of law and order. I can't see that happening I think they prefer us all locked up frightened to go out after dusk.
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As I keep on saying, for those who need to use public transport and/or have to walk here and there for whatever reason (e.g. have maybe never learned to drive, can't afford a vehicle, saving for house deposit etc), that's the way the cookie crumbles. For those of us fortunate enough to have a vehicle, the door to door experience (for convenience and safety) is hard to argue against. There are bus stops quite close to my house, however the short walk to/from them in the dark involves walking past thick wooded areas, the entrance to an underpass, various nooks and crannies. Plenty of places for an undesirable to hang out.

No thanks, I'll drive.
 
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