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Florida is almost entirely a place where you need a car to do anything. It is so absurdly spread-out that even driving at high speed on their high speed roads i

Florida is almost entirely a place where you need a car to do anything. It is so absurdly spread-out that even driving at high speed on their high speed roads is a remarkably slow way to get anywhere. If people cannot park there, they cannot get there. Even if you built a real urban walkable neighbourhood with housing, stores, schools, offices, churches - a place where people could truly walk to all of their daily needs - the people that lived there would still need multiple cars per family in order to access the outside world. It would be like living on an island. Attempting to leave on foot would be like trying to swim across the ocean. If you don't die of dehydration or exhaustion first, you will probably killed by a shark/car before you get anywhere. Ironically, about 1 in 4 Florida drivers are uninsured. One fake town centre is merely a tiny, amusing symptom of a giant chicken-and-egg problem.

bluGill 7y ago
If it really was as a walkable neighborhood some people could get rid of the car. There would still be a lot of cars but we would have the start of people not having cars. Walkable means several possible jobs, a library, courthouse, many retailers at several price points including discount retail where you buy your daily groceries and clothing.
chapium 7y ago
This is where the false urbanism comes in. Chicago for examples is in many ways a network of these islands. However they collide with each other giving a nice network effect. Its far from a perfect example, I feel its still rather sparse in design as to accommodate cars but there is less parking in general. This plot as a designed urban center is very much like one of these islands but without adjacent neighborhoods to fill in any local gaps.
papito 7y ago
You start somewhere. If you have multiple dwelling buildings, there will be more people per square mile. Then local business come in. People from the outside may not be accommodated in terms of parking, but at least people who live in the neighborhood don't have to fire up the car to get some milk. It's not that different from a neighborhood in, say, Queens.
pas 7y ago
Put a big car park outside the residential area, and provide a shuttle bus service to get there.

bluGill 7y ago

If it really was as a walkable neighborhood some people could get rid of the car. There would still be a lot of cars but we would have the start of people not having cars. Walkable means several possible jobs, a library, courthouse, many retailers at several price points including discount retail where you buy your daily groceries and clothing.

chapium 7y ago

This is where the false urbanism comes in. Chicago for examples is in many ways a network of these islands. However they collide with each other giving a nice network effect. Its far from a perfect example, I feel its still rather sparse in design as to accommodate cars but there is less parking in general. This plot as a designed urban center is very much like one of these islands but without adjacent neighborhoods to fill in any local gaps.

papito 7y ago

You start somewhere. If you have multiple dwelling buildings, there will be more people per square mile. Then local business come in. People from the outside may not be accommodated in terms of parking, but at least people who live in the neighborhood don't have to fire up the car to get some milk. It's not that different from a neighborhood in, say, Queens.

pas 7y ago

Put a big car park outside the residential area, and provide a shuttle bus service to get there.