As well as making our cities more walkable and improving public
transport, we also need to make driving less convenient. Not too
much; we still need our cars for travelling outside of the city and
for moving heavy goods. But we need to break the habit of jumping
straight in our cars the minute we leave the house.
In Cloverleaf City this is achieved by having residents park their
cars about 2 minutes away from their home.
Ring Road
The ring road, 4 central car parks and 24 peripheral car
parks function as they would in any other city.
They are lined with trees and thick undergrowth to hide
them from view. And porous road surfaces and lower speed limits
keep traffic noise to a minimum.
Interior Roads
Roads within districts are different. Rather than
shorter journey times for drivers, the emphasis is on maintaining a
pleasant pedestrian environment.
Also, they are only for residents travelling between the city and the
world beyond. They are not for movement within the city; we
have the trolleybus network for that.
This is ensured in 3 ways:
Residents only. Excepting short stay bays for deliveries, all parking spaces would be allocated, with residents having
to pay extra for them. Visitors to a district would park in
the peripheral car park.
Unconnected. The roads never lead directly
from one district to another.
Slow. Speed limits would be no higher than 20mph, and cars
would have to yield to both trolleybuses and pedestrians.
Every house still fronts onto a pedestrian
street. Buildings adjacent to roads and car parks would be
orientated away from them, with their gardens acting as a barrier between.
Raised intersections and speed bumps slow cars further where roads cross pedestrian
paths, and pedestrians have right of way.
Where the road crosses over the
central boulevard, cars would leapfrog from the road to the first
refuge, then to the second refuge, and finally back onto the road, yielding
to pedestrians, trolleybuses and pedestrians in turn.
Light industry would be built along the straight road connecting the
circular car park to the peripheral car park, with housing at the ends to
maintain a pleasant pedestrian environment on paths cutting across.
Going Carfree
Cloverleaf City is actually 2 designs in 1.
Once completed, it can be made fully carfree by removing
all circular roads and car parks and building housing in their place, increasing
the city's population to 150,000.
Residents would instead park their cars in the
peripheral car parks, at most an 8 minute walk away.
To make this process easier, spaces in the circular car parks would only
ever be rented, not owned
by the residents themselves.
And circular car parks are built with just the right
dimensions ...
... to be later replaced by housing.
As well as housing, new light industry would be built as
shown below in blue.
The city need never become fully carfree, but the option should always
be there.
