UK Plans 10 Car-Free "Eco-Towns," With 15mph Speed Limits
UK policy makers are pulled in two directions. On one hand, they want to provide affordable "working class" housing in a country where development is neither cheap nor easy. On the other hand, they can't be seen to hurt a single leaf on a single tree, or warm the planet by a billionth of a degree (either Fahrenheit or Celsius). The answer: "eco-towns." The government is championing 10 new developments of 5k – 20k homes per town and no, I repeat no, traffic within their center. The speed limits on "key roads" leading into the new towns' [I'm guessing here] pay-and-display car parks (owner garages? fuhgeddaboutit) would be set at 15mph. The Daily Express reports that "driver pressure groups fear the proposals could herald reduced speed limits across the country, branding them 'an excuse to bully motorists.'" The UK's Housing Minister is unapologetic, to say the least. "“These developments will be exemplars for the rest of the world, not just the rest of the country," Caroline Flint asserted. "It’s critical that we get it right and I make no apology for setting the bar as high [or in this case low] as possible.”
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The point about driving is sort of moot because obviously these towns are planned around walkability. Like towns should be. Leave your exurb and go to New York City, Portland, or any college town and you'll see what I mean.
Lum, What was I thinking? You are of course correct, they will never fail. Besides, if anything at all goes wrong, it will be Bush's fault.
Hmmm, this is probably the only headline that will use the words "Car" and "Free" together.