Life Without Cars

Just had another peak at article, it says two out of town garages where you can own a space, I guess that may be garage as in multi storey carpark.
I think your desire for a garage and vehicular access to the home to load/unloading is based on a requirement for somewhere safe and lockable not in your home to store stuff, specialist tools that aren't required for every plumbing job say. My initail interpretation of garage would cater for this but perhaps not communal garage.
As for storing bikes, gardening tools at the home, there is a picture of quite a nice yard in the article, i've just bought a shed/store thing myself that could work here. But then the article talks of 4/5 story buildings and the banishment of detached homes, so how much personal outdoor space each home is afforded is unknown.
These storage boxes/sheds I talk of could also be fitted at your garage/parking space. I think it requires a change of pattern of behaviour but is not such a impassable obstacle as you make out. Then again, the place is depicted as a happy skippy community of dogooders, so i'm imagineing a kind of utipoia with no crime where these flimsy metal sheds are secure enough, perhaps you are being a bit more realistic.

In general london has made me a grumpy(er) person. It seems very impersonnal with a fuck everyone else as long as i'm ok attitude, and I don't like it. Unfortunately my job choice dictates I live here, or spend a long time travelling here. I have a desire to get out and live in or near the countryside and this makes my feelings towards this utopian idea of community and resistance to your realism strong.

Maybe one day i'll make it out mtbing and we can chat in person.

You say that a car-free environment would create a narrow band of society. You say that living together creates understanding and empathy.

Do you then think that cars have contributed to make our society a happy, balanced and compassionate one? I see the opposite. You interact much more with people if you are on foot, public transport, bicycles etc..

Again this is how cars are used, bad car use rather than just car use.

I'm not on about what cars have done for us I'm on about what poorly though out schemes will do. I'm not on about stopping the local reduced traffic part of the scheme it's the narrowness of the type of life style and type of people who would hence be able to live here because it goes to far and is unrealistic.

Just had another peak at article, it says two out of town garages where you can own a space, I guess that may be garage as in multi storey carpark.
I think your desire for a garage and vehicular access to the home to load/unloading is based on a requirement for somewhere safe and lockable not in your home to store stuff, specialist tools that aren't required for every plumbing job say. My initail interpretation of garage would cater for this but perhaps not communal garage.
As for storing bikes, gardening tools at the home, there is a picture of quite a nice yard in the article, i've just bought a shed/store thing myself that could work here. But then the article talks of 4/5 story buildings and the banishment of detached homes, so how much personal outdoor space each home is afforded is unknown.
These storage boxes/sheds I talk of could also be fitted at your garage/parking space. I think it requires a change of pattern of behaviour but is not such a impassable obstacle as you make out. Then again, the place is depicted as a happy skippy community of dogooders, so i'm imagineing a kind of utipoia with no crime where these flimsy metal sheds are secure enough, perhaps you are being a bit more realistic.

In general london has made me a grumpy(er) person. It seems very impersonnal with a fuck everyone else as long as i'm ok attitude, and I don't like it. Unfortunately my jobYour on about a completely car far society ripping up and starting again this setup is choice dictates I live here, or spend a long time travelling here. I have a desire to get out and live in or near the countryside and this makes my feelings towards this utopian idea of community and resistance to your realism strong.

Maybe one day i'll make it out mtbing and we can chat in person.

Security is an issue yes but only part of it. In my eyes the trips cars should be used for are basically,

1 Trip requiring transport of large / awkward objects, over short distances cargo bike can cover much of this but not all and you would not want to ride a cargo bike even 20 miles in general.

1. Long journeys which are not inter city.

2. Basically a combination of 1 & 2, say your going for a trip climbing so you take a load of camping / hiking gear and traveling ot the middle of nowhere, or you may be traveling inter city but be taking 2 or 3 passengers + luggage, which in many cases as long as you don't drive some gas guzzling car produces less carbon than public transport or worse case in comparable.

3. Mobility impaired.

This removes all / most of the commuting to work for most people thing, local trips to see local friends, shopping e.t.c but all bar possibly number two require you to have vehicular access to you house. Parking away doubles the local journeys to and from parking in this respect.

This adds a large chunk of unnecessary obstacles in peoples ways with no gain to the community. This would reduce the life style and type of people that would want to work live in this scheme.

I'm not on about a scrap everything and start again system this is a new development still living within the current one so it needs restrictions.

I am very passionate about this kind of thing which is why I may come across as aggressive. I see so many environmental schemes that don't seems to be full thought out in their social effect if it's a scheme like this or it's realism. Or if it's to do with energy supply the main criteria seems to be stimulate the economy rather than look at how much energy we require, what way can we produce this power what split, there seems to be no coherent plan. It also seems to follow the knee jerk reaction that all cars are bad and all car journeys are bad and more polluting than public transport which is untrue.

Environmental schemes already are gaining a bad reputation which only feeds ammunition to the global warming deniers / conspiracy theory club. Failed schemes of one sort only adds fuel to people. If A fails then something even vaguely familiar to A even if a lot better thought out will not even be attempted. There is also the problem of not thinking of all aspects of a plan, take the old GCSE geography project of why tower blocks failed in many areas, several key mistakes made. Hindsight is a wonderful I know but
doesn't mean we should stop trying to minimise the big errors. This plan seems close but I feel would only attract narrow section of society (which I believe is damaging). I also alluded to the fact that this type of development I believes pushed us down "The increased specialization of society" that I believe is bad for society, more on that for another time. Add in the barriers to someone even like myself who I believe is very conscientious about how they use a car (my journeys fall into 2 & 3 mainly) is narrowing it away from someone is potentially a key market. I suppose I'm not really an urbanite and that's why it does not appeal to me. I like you live in London because of work more than want.

I'd love to talk in person about it as I'm very passionate about it and you sound tobe too.

but all bar possibly number two require you to have vehicular access to you house.

Vehicular access to your house is certainly possible--the only thing that's prohibited is long-term parking. Loading and unloading are permitted. They've eliminated initial problems with parking for visitors, too.

Parking away doubles the local journeys to and from parking in this respect.
Theoretically, that's an important consideration. However, in practice Vauban is very small--0,41 km². Easily walkable and cyclable to get to your car when you need it.

This adds a large chunk of unnecessary obstacles in peoples ways with no gain to the community. This would reduce the life style and type of people that would want to work live in this scheme.
That's definitely a chink in the armour of the Vauban concept. They acknowledge themselves that

In jedem Fall ist Nachfolgeprojekten zu empfehlen, das behindertengerechte Wohnen und Parken intensiver anzugehen, als dies in Vauban bisher geschehen ist.

'In any case, possible successor projects would be well-advised to consider the living requirements of disabled (meaning, probably, people with mobility impairments) more carefully than this has been done in Vauban so far.' (my translation)

http://www.vauban.de/info/verkehrsprojekt/k8.html#8-4-8

Buildings seem to have been converted to include well-designed step-free access, and you can apply for a parking space next to your house if you have a mobility impairment, but to date no-one appears to have moved in yet who would require one. They're open to it, but seemingly not actively encouraging people with mobility impairments to come and live there.

It also seems to follow the knee jerk reaction that all cars are bad and all car journeys are bad and more polluting than public transport which is untrue.

I don't think that that's the Vauban attitude at all. 30% of residents 'officially' own a car (with an estimated 10-15% having cars registered under the names of people who don't live there, which is slightly subverting the system), and there are 15 cars shared by 400 people in a car share club. There are still quite a few cars around, but for German conditions, that's certainly impressive figures. Lots of people apparently also sold their cars when they moved to Vauban.

You're right, of course, that being 'anti-car' is a bit stupid, but I don't think that's the case here--it's more a case of creating the framework within which people feel comfortable to rely less on their car, through spatial planning, community, and local services such as car sharing. By all accounts, it seems to be working well.

Environmental schemes already are gaining a bad reputation which only feeds ammunition to the global warming deniers / conspiracy theory club. Failed schemes of one sort only adds fuel to people.

This plan seems close but I feel would only attract narrow section of society (which I believe is damaging).
No demographic information seems to be available. I suppose projects like this have to succeed in that narrow band of society first where they are likely to be entertained seriously, and then cross over. But too early to tell.

Aha. So I did stumble upon the correct area in google maps. It is indeed a small zone. I had imagined it somewhat larger and more detached from the town/city. As you say the distances involved in such a small zone should be no impediment. I was uncertain that i'd found the right spot because the roads through it didn't seem to be overly lacking in vehicles.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=47.97548,7.823972&spn=0.004697,0.008744&t=h&z=17

Aha. So I did stumble upon the correct area in google maps. It is indeed a small zone. I had imagined it somewhat larger and more detached from the town/city. As you say the distances involved in such a small zone should be no impediment. I was uncertain that i'd found the right spot because the roads through it didn't seem to be overly lacking in vehicles.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=47.97548,7.823972&spn=0.004697,0.008744&t=h&z=17

Try and compare it with the surrounding area. There's a car at every house outside of Vauban. I can certainly spot a reduction compared to typical German standards (not hard, admittedly).

Then again, the place is depicted as a happy skippy community of dogooders, so i'm imagineing a kind of utipoia with no crime where these flimsy metal sheds are secure enough, perhaps you are being a bit more realistic.

I grew up in this part of Germany (100km away) and you really don't need anything else. My parents leave their cars and front doors unlocked and park their bikes unlocked out in the front of the house.

It is a socially conservative area, which has surprisingly large support for Germany's Green party though. The city next to Vauban, Freiburg, is the centre of Germany's solar panel industry and has the only, AFAIK, Green major of any city in Germany.

Didn't Tübingen at one point have a Green majority administration, too?

Of course it's much smaller than Freiburg.

Just be careful as some bad things can happen, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89X-Driver