WHY WE NEED SMART CITIES AND WHY SMART PEOPLE WILL WANT TO LIVE IN THEM
Pre-amble –
I have always had a great aversion to frivolous over-consumption and waste of natural resources and long ago came to the conclusion that our “concept” of cities as vast unbounded sprawls expanding to the horizon is at the root of all our e/v problems – and most societal problems too. Sprawl is our biggest single source of waste – waste of materials, waste of energy, and a big waste of time (commuting) – yet nobody least of all the Al Gore’s seem to have arrived at the same conclusion. Although city sprawl began with the steam train it was greatly facilitated by motor transportation, in particular the ubiquitous private motor vehicle (PMV), original intended for pleasure outings. Today pleasure usage is very much subordinate to “essential” chores like getting to work, ferrying the kids to and from school, and the big supermarket slog.
THE COMMUTING
This has become the main reason for owning a car, either to drive directly to work or indirectly to get to the public transport, with wifey ferrying hubby to the train station before the morning school run, followed by running a few errands, popping off to the shops, then the afternoon school run, and her day finishing by collecting hubby from station. Notice that none of this comes under the increasingly rare category of “pleasure-outing”. However, in order to pay for the mortgage, the car, and all the other bills, many couples now have to both work full-time, and obviously they then need “his and hers” cars.
Recently – on British TV News – a teacher couple were being interviewed about how “tough” life is with the govts new “austerity” measures. I had to chuckle to myself when they complained “we both need new cars”. Think about it – they BOTH have their own car AND they expect to get new ones every few years. Of course there’s nothing unusual about what they said, it was just the assumption that everyone would understand their “hardship” in not having 2 new cars.
I also think that all this propaganda about “green” electric runabouts is going to be an excuse for a lot of people who can afford it to get a 3rd car they don’t need – but it will be a good way of displaying fashionable “green” credentials on their sleeve. Which brings me to another point that is rarely if ever remarked upon – the most unsustainable thing about PMV’s is not their use of non-renewable fossil fuels, but the unmentioned fact that an average car is only actually driven for about one hour a day – most of its life is spent stationary rusting away on the street or in parking precincts or gathering dust in the garage. Electric cars may well prove to be less polluting and more environmentally-friendly, but if they are also only going to be used for an hour a day what have we gained?
Wouldn’t it be great if the office or workplace was just a short pleasant stroll from home?
THE HECTIC SCHOOL RUN
Whatever happened to the idea of kids walking to school? “Oh, no, I’d never make my kids walk to school, firstly its too far but mainly its much too dangerous..!” Danger? From what? “From all the traffic to start with (much of it due to the school run itself) and then there’s all the strange men and so forth, you know..!”
Wouldn’t it be great if the school was only a short walk from home with no dangerous motor traffic or “strange men” to worry about? And it would be even better if right next to the school was an extensive and beautiful nature zone they could play in? And here’s another option – for a modest fee the kids could “board” at the school during the week – that would get them out of your hair and teach them a bit of discipline too..! Could this ever be possible?
THE BIG SUPERMARKET SLOG
“Have you ever tried taking the bus loaded down with a dozen supermarket bags? Try buying a ticket whilst trying to hold onto all that stuff. And then there’s usually nowhere to put your bags, and if there is you’ve gotta watch it like a hawk or it’ll be stolen. And, as the bus stops and starts and lurches around corners, your stuff keeps threatening to spill out everywhere. It’s a bloody nightmare..! I could NEVER do without my car..!
Wouldn’t it be great if your local supermarket was just a short walk from home AND, for a token amount, they let you take your trolley home and leave it at your apartment door? And it would be even nicer if you didn’t have to worry about inclement weather.
Nowadays there seems to be a widespread belief that if we switched to electric cars and generated our power from solar and wind, everything would be hunky-dory..! The search for alternative (green) energy sources is worth striving for, but its not a panacea..! Barring a major technological breakthrough, even the most optimistic projections don’t anticipate that, 20 years hence, more than 20% of our energy will come from renewables. So we must also reduce our energy consumption and emissions output by, many experts are now saying, as much as 80%. How is this to be achieved whilst maintaining a high standard of living? The 2 objectives seem to be contradictory.
As I drive out of a big city I find myself despising the land-gobbling expanses of ugly flats and little box houses with their little satellite dishes and their interminable supporting infrastructure – the roads, the side-walks, the kerbs, the gutters, the drains, the sewage network, the water mains, the transmission pylons, the sub-stations, the power lines and their poles, the telephone lines and their poles, (or do they share poles now?). And their pathetic graffiti and litter-strewn reserves and poorly-tended parks where suspicious characters lurk and without a fierce dog nobody should stroll – certainly not after dusk. And don’t get me started about the strip malls, the fast food huts, the car yards, the “big box” discount stores, the vast parking areas….. aaaarrrrgggghhhh..!!, just thinking about it makes me want to throw-up..!
As I said, mindlessly depressing and yet, perhaps surprisingly, all of it quite redundant.
I have asked myself, “Why can’t we go forward to the past, so to speak, and revert to compact cities with cohesive communities?”
“Won’t work” they say, “too many people, too many cars, people are too busy, and nobody wants to live as in the past – entire families squashed into tiny places, like the slums of India. Most people want space – they want houses with gardens – back and front….”
Maybe “most people” do want these things, but do they also want to spend 2/3 hours commuting to-and-fro every day?
And that’s not the end of it – what about the hectic “school run” and the supermarket slog?
Because that is the price they pay for the sprawl they have created. Do people actually have a choice?
“Well, you can get small flats in central (London or Sydney, or wherever) but they are very expensive”.
So, if its really true that most people don’t want to live in small flats in the city centre, then why are they so expensive?
“Well, people who have money (ie, more choices) don’t want to waste half their spare time travelling”. (and who honestly does?)
So its all about supply and demand – and it seems there are a lot of people prepared to pay big money for what “most people” don’t want and don’t like?
Yes, I suppose so.
Such an imaginary conversation made me think about the need for a new and better kind of city, one where people would happily abandon car ownership – and 20 years ago I came up with the prototype DP, although the design has undergone a few tweaks since.
So here it is, CHOICE personified – the city paradigm that could become a reality sooner than you might think..!
You’ve all heard of the Smart Car. Now read about the Smart City..!