“The Freedom of Car Use Without the Hassle of Ownership”

Multi-storey carparks, open parking lots, service station forecourts, big-box retail store parking areas, private garages, driveways, concreted-over suburban gardens, street parking, and then add the space occupied by roads themselves….

perhaps 50% of the land area of UK towns and cities is either occupied by, allocated to, or in some other way dedicated to motor vehicles.

For humans, motor traffic is a source of noise, air pollution, stress, financial worries, occasional police involvement and legal hassles, and even danger of death and injury – although less so than in the past.  But for pets and wild animals, roads have always been – and continue to be – a ruthless killing machine.  (The UK’s hedgehog population has declined by 97% since the 1950’s..!)   

Car-free OA-Cities will have NONE of that unsightly motoring infrastructure, so will not need to WASTE an inch of its land area on parking.  An outside parking area to serve 7500 residents (say 3000 vehicles) would occupy as much land again as the OA-City building footprint – about 10 hectares (25 acres) – and the beautiful sylvan “Sanctuary” would be replaced by a vast field of grey-black asphalt (like the one below).  The much more costly alternative of an underground car-park would occupy valuable basement space which could be utilised for hydroponic agriculture, utility infrastructure, recycling operations, light industrial workshops, store-rooms, etc.   

What a parking area for 3000-ish cars looks like – a view that only Jeremy Clarkson could love..! (and look, no caravans..!)

ENTER CAR-SHARING (aka”CAR CLUBS”)    

Short journeys to adjacent OA-City habitats will be via PRT (personal rapid transport) pod-cars, similar (but better) to those at Heathrow T5.   Car-rental is good for longer trips and longer rental periods, but is not ideal for spontaneous short trips since it involves bureaucratic time-wasting – forms to sign, scrutiny of utility bills, driving licence, ID’s, credit cards, and checking the car for damage, etc.  

The ideal flexible solution for OA-City residents wishing to make occasional “outside” trips would be Car Sharing. 

The Car Club concept is a “pay as you go” short term car hiring scheme whereby members have 24/7 access to club-owned cars located in dedicated parking bays which, in theory at least, are just “a few minutes walk” from members homes.

Car Clubs differ from normal car rental in 3 ways.

• Cars can be hired for just an hour or two rather than an entire day
• No pre-hire paperwork to complete and no physical interaction with staff.  
• Cars are not collected from depots but are waiting on the street in designated parking spaces.

For a “nominal monthly fee” members are issued with a smart card which permits access to the cars and relays their usage info to a computer which bills users monthly on a time and mileage basis.  However, because there may be only a few cars available in any given area, members cannot just jump in a car like it was their own – it is always necessary to book first.  

The concept sounds ideal in principle but has many drawbacks – especially in the UK

• The British fixation on houses, and cultural disdain for flats, results in a low urban density (LUD)
  
• LUD increases the walking distance to the nearest available car, thus reducing the idea’s appeal. 
• UK car clubs are more expensive than those in higher-density European cities
• In bad weather “a few minutes walk” can, in practice, be uncomfortably far and inconvenient. 
• The necessity to book in advance implies that a car may not always be available.  What then? 
• Advance booking defeats the ideal of spontaneous car use.
• Cars must be returned at a fixed time, so trips must be planned, making casual exploring difficult.
• Cars are all the same model, or the choice is very limited.
• Requires a high level of co-operation.    Re-fuelling, for example, who pays for that time?
• Illegal occupation of the dedicated parking bays will happen occasionally and cause problems.
• Street parked cars are vulnerable to vandalism, theft, damage.
• Previous users might leave the car dirty or faulty or with an empty fuel tank.
• More expensive than normal car rental (except for short rentals of 4 hrs or less)
• £59 a day for a “Zipcar”..! (for that you can often rent a car for 3-5 days)

CONCLUSION – the CS concept is more suitable for higher-density European cities where the idea began.   In the UK it is most popular in London but I doubt it will ever be adopted by more than a tiny minority

However, in compact OA-Cities, Car Sharing would work brilliantly 

• Almost everyone would want to join the Car Share Club, thus delivering economy of scale.   
• Secure parking in a warm and dry underground car park, less than 5 minutes away  
• 24/7 staffed depot means cars can be cleaned and checked daily, as opposed to “every 2 weeks”
• Advance booking will not usually be necessary due to the large car pool (possibly 300..?)   
• Car population reduced by at least 90% – person:car ratio 25:1 (compared to 2.5:1 in OB-Cities) 
• The community cars (CC’s) will occupy very little basement space, as explained below.  

OA-City Car Parking Ecology

7500 OA-City residents would probably need no more than 300 “community cars”, compared to a conventional town of 7500 people which would have a car population of least 3000, and probably more..!  And the precious OA-City space required to park those 300 cars would be far less than normal car parks, which need to allow a wide gap between cars for driver and passenger access – plus a lot of extra space for manoeuvring – whereas CC’s could be parked densely nose-to-tail and shoulder-to-shoulder on a conveyor track..! 

300 CC’s could occupy just 25% of the parking area required for 300 PC’s, or just 0.25 hectares (less than an acre), a tiny fraction of the 10 hectare (25 acre) parking space which would be needed for 3000..!

OB-City car usage is mostly for commuting, shopping, picking up kids, etc, none of which will apply in OA-Cities

OA-City residents will only occasionally need to go “outside” as all work, education, shopping, and leisure activities take place within the environs..

OA-Cities will be exciting and attractive places to visit, so your friends/relatives may prefer to visit you rather than you visit them..

The attractions of OA-Cities and its beautiful Sanctuary will offer more pleasure than a car-clogged weekend country drive…