What do mean by the term “ObeCity”?
Think of a middle-aged woman who has worn a corset since she was a teenager – the corset constricted her food intake and kept her figure within slim and trim boundaries for many years. But once the corset was discarded, her physical boundaries loosened and the trim figure ballooned into obesity which is, very frankly, ugliness. Cities like London, which used to much smaller and very densely-populated, had their own “corsets” in the form of defensive walls, but once these were removed there was no longer a limit to their size. This is what happened to London and other cities once affordable transportation became available.
Before mechanised transport was invented all cities had to be “walkable cities”, as only the gentry could afford horses and carriages with which to ride around town or to and from their country house – the countryside of those days being just a few miles from Londons centre. So, until the mid-19th century most cities existed within confined and defined boundaries, largely determined by walking distances, thus enabling ordinary people to easily access their place of work. From around 1840, when first the train, later the motor omnibus, and finally the private motor car came along, London very rapidly overflowed its old boundaries and proceeded to engulf and consume hundreds of surrounding villages whose fields and market gardens provided locally-produced food for the city. Today these former villages exist in name only, and the few which have retained some of their village character tend to be some of the most desirable places to live in Greater London.
But wasn’t that a good thing? After all, living conditions in the old over-populated City of London must have been very unhygienic.
Yes at the time a little bit of sprawl was a good thing for community health, but the process got completely out of control and sprawl has gone much too far. For example, the British pre-dilection for individual houses with both front and back gardens is quite absurd considering the country’s small size and heavy population density. It is an environmental disaster that has cost the country a vast amount of woodland, pasture, arable, and recreational space. It has made land scarce and expensive thus inflating prices across the board. And land is something England never had in abundance, considering it was always a relatively densely populated country but which has grown 5-fold in 200 years.
Today there is no excuse for this waste, we have the technology to live very comfortably in high-density 3D cities.
With no cars, how will residents and visiors get around D?
DP will be “small” enough to comfortably walk everywhere – we are talking of a building about 300 metres square – a footprint of about 10 hectares (25 acres) – so a brisk walk around the perimeter of 1200 metres would take about 15 minutes, so most places within the building would be no more than a 5-minute stroll away – excluding vertical (elevator or steps) travel. Most shopping malls force the visitor to walk considerably further than this, and not too comfortably when you consider the lovely puddle strewn carparks we have to cross whilst avoiding cars searching for parking spaces and abandoned shopping trolleys as we go.
In big airports like Heathrow travellers often have to walk considerable distances carrying large “hand-baggage”. Like airport terminals Δ will also have moving walkways and handy small trolleys to carry your goods and you will be able to wheel your trolley with all your goods right up to your apartment door, unlike at airports where you have to abandon your trolley when you still have far to walk to your departure gate. After unloading you will be able to park it nearby in a designated trolley collection area.
Only when D is scaled up to structures of 20,000+ residents will it become necessary to have a personal transit system of pods riding on powered guideways and thus not reliant on heavy polluting batteries. There is at least one such concept already in train, so to speak –
Urban Light Transport “ULTra” concept www.atsltd.co.uk – previewed in Focus magazine sept 04 – www.focusmag.co.uk.
More recently there is “SkyTran” (not to be confused with “Sky-Train”)
How will D residents/visitors get to and from “obecities” as you call them?
There are several possibilities
1) The ideal solution is the “car-sharing” concept with vehicles available to all on a time-distance basis. www.smartmoves.co.uk
1) Δ mk1 may have limited (possibly basement) parking – but this may be reserved for community car (shared) vehicles (see article)
3) Δ will be connected to the nearby obecity by light rail or monorail – perhaps to the nearest train or subway connection.
Where D is an adjunct of an obecity, the cost may be shared between D and the adjacent obecity.
4) Δ residents can simply walk to the perimeter gate where normal buses would be available.
OK, so when the concept is more developed and D cities are stand-alone and isolated, how will they travel?
Primarily via TGV-type high-speed trains. There will also be conventional car hire facilities or “car clubs” as are now springing up.
If motor vehicles are prohibited from DP, how will goods be moved to and fro?
Incoming goods will be off-loaded at a special goods facility and transferred onto an underground light rail system. Transhipment of goods makes it more difficult for terrorists to smuggle in a big explosive device.