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+# low-car developments
+
+Tom Rushby 2023-02-25
+
+thinking about low-car and car-free development and the barriers to their realisation ...
+
+the current configuration of housing and mobility provides a huge barrier to improving aspects of livability through car-reduction.
+
+new developments are expected to provide a minimum number of parking spaces per dwelling (bedroom?) due to the current high car dependence and ownership
+
+this is so embedded in expectations for new developments that planning strategy (right down to local plans) have minimum off-street parking provision expectations written into policy documents
+
+of course this guidance does have some logic - if we want to avoid streets clogged with parked vehicles and footpaths rendered impassable through pavement parking, the vehicles need to be stored somewhere
+
+are buyers expectations too considered to be non-negotiable when it comes to the provision of convenience parking for vehicles close to houses? new developments quickly reveal the dominance of the car over other uses for street-space - particularly visible where off-street parking provision is not adequate
+
+to challenge this dominance in a single development seems nigh-on impossible, the combination of current practice in planning and development design, along with buyer expectations of quick and convenient access to private vehicles seem insurmountable
+
+but how much are these expectations based on reality as opposed to assumptions and system inertia?
+
+**path dependence and systems thinking**
+
+it's hard to see how to make the leap to low or zero-car with so much car-centric infrastructure providing such inertia - doing one element differently is made harder because the whole system is biased toward continuing with the current configuration (lack of safe active-travel routes or convenient mass-transit options act to solidify car-dependence)
+
+to change one element (e.g. reducing parking provision in a new development) becomes reliant on simultaneously (and successfully) implementing other significant changes to the system
+
+\-- is the multi-level perspective helpful to understand (lanscape, niches and innovations) --
+
+**looking to the near future**
+
+should we be building-in such large provisions for off-street parking when we accept that the dominance of the car should (and will) make way for more active travel and mass-transit modes?
+
+unfortunately the gap from where we are now, and where we want to get to feels like a chasm - build too little provision and face a mess of car-littered streetspace, build to current demands and lose valuable land to storing vehicles (and be left with redundant provision as things finally shift in 10 years)
+
+**street spaces in transition**
+
+what does a model for street spaces in transition look like?
+
+do we build temporary car-storage spaces that can be easily converted to other uses when the other aspects of the future of low-car mobility catch up?