IN S-P-R-A-W-L CITIES, THE ANSWER IS NO..!

“The gigantism of the car landscape and the consequent urban sprawl are the main obstacles to sustainability.”   Paolo Soleri

It has always been crystal clear to me – but apparently not to the eco-lobby – that “saving the planet” would be much simpler if that object of our affection, which even lycra-clad cycling enthusiasts assume would be impossible to live without, could be dispensed with.  What could be more illogical, and more damaging to the environment, than (in the UK alone)..

>33 MILLION over-sized and over-powered, but critically UNDER-USED, passenger cars – each typically occupied by just ONE PERSON and used (actually driven) for just ONE HOUR per day or less..! 

It seems very strange that such a scandalously wasteful, enormously inefficient, and alarmingly DANGEROUS (especially to wildlife and our beloved pets) personal transportation concept is almost never fingered as the root cause behind most of the eco-dilemmas that we constantly agonise over.  Since economists constantly parrot the mantra “our economies could not survive without them..!”, one might expect visiting aliens to assume our cars to be sacred icons of twin deities – “JOBS” and “THE ECONOMY”.   

Instead of tackling the ROOT CAUSE of our enviro woes – cities built around car dependency – the UK govt (along with many others) have legislated an insane plan to scrap 33 million ICEV’s and replace them with 33 million EV’s, each loaded with 400-500 kilos of toxic batteries which last maybe 10 years before they also have to be scrapped..!  Aside from the enormous waste and pollution, a world of EV’s will require a doubling of electricity generation..! 

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Fun Fact – The average UK car is driven for just 20 miles a day (about 1 hr per day) – most of which is taken up by commuting, school run, shopping, and assorted mundane errands, etc.   

5% of the time it is being used, the other 95% of the time it is sitting idle..!

A QUESTION FOR CAR OWNERS….

Q. As a % of all your driving hours, how much of your driving is pleasure trips..?

I haven’t been able to find any figures but, if I were to stab a guess, “pleasure usage” as a proportion of all usage probably hovers between 5 and 10% – and the latter figure is surely an over-estimate. 

Mr Average Car, like most of his mates, spends 95% of his life “resting”..!  Of the other 5%, 90% of that is occupied with “mundane” jobs, leaving just 10% for what he was originally designed for, i.e., “pleasure trips”.  So Mr A. Car only does what he is best at doing for just 6 minutes a day, or only 0.5% of his life..!    

The point is simple.  If you were fortunate enough to live in a place where you could easily and conveniently walk to work, school, shops, etc., the ONLY REASON you might want a car would be for those occasional pleasure trips.  In that case the common-sense thing to do would be to RENT A CAR as and when you need one..!   Even better, belong to a CAR-SHARING group..!   

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THE SYMBIOTIC LINK BETWEEN SPRAWL & CARS –

EACH FEEDS OFF THE OTHER

ELIMINATE CARS TO ELIMINATE SPRAWL

ELIMINATE SPRAWL TO ELIMINATE CARS

Cities are built around cars, thus enabling residents to live in widely-dispersed low-density suburbs often far from where they work, shop, school, and play.  Instead of addressing the ROOT CAUSE of the multitude of problems caused by mega-millions of private vehicles, we keep adding to the problem by continually expanding and “improving” the already convoluted road and services infrastructure in order to accommodate ever more..!    

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IS “BETTER PUBLIC TRANSPORT” THE SOLUTION..?   

The Green lobby constantly parrot the mantra of “BETTER PUBLIC TRANSPORT”, as if it were a magical talisman that would make life easier and would “get people out of their cars”.  But just how much better would public transport need to be in order to achieve that allegedly happy goal ?  To me a “good service” would be at least 4 buses/trams per hour from 6am to midnight, with stops located not more than 5 minutes walk from home.  If that were even remotely possible, it would mean an investment of mega-billions in every big city and probably a tripling of the public transport workforce. 

Public transport would be improved if British cities were 2-3 times more densely populated, as they are in Italy or Spain where 80% of the population live in medium-high density flats. But that’s not going to happen in Britain and, even if it did, would it really make our lives any easier? 

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In an ideal city, CAR-OWNERSHIP makes NO LOGICAL SENSE..!       

The obvious solution is a totally new kind of city –

one where cars are not needed at all..!

   

OASIS CITIES can/will  

• resolve all our sustainability and ecological issues,
• alleviate the many acute social and health problems in OBcities
• narrow the wide (and ever-expanding) salary/wealth gap
• create cohesive, collaborative, and harmonious high-trust societies
• create communities where obligations take precedence over “rights” 
• heal the ideological discord that divides society into 2 angry camps – “left” and “right”
• combine the best aspects of socialism and capitalism.
• facilitate the emergence of a steady-state economy   
• lead to self-contained, self-sufficient, and self-governing City States