Ivory Park is an interesting experiment, and I hope it all works out,
but to think that an ecovillage in Ivory Park could lead to a car-free
Johannesburg or Pretoria is either insanity or the ulitimate in
wishfull thinking and idealism.
The majority of cars owned in the Greater Johannesburg Metropole
(excluding taxis) are owned by white (and increasingly, black) middle
and upper income earners. These people don't live in ecovillages, and
probably don't want to. Many live in areas somewhat remote from their
place of work, and they will not utilise the available public
transport system for various reasons. Looking at my small company for
example, I live about 5km from my office, my two partners live around
25 and 35km away respectively. There is no way that any of us would
even remotely consider the possibility of using public transport. The
result: 3 cars in the city for 3 people.
My girlfriend lives with me, and works about half a km away from where
I work. She uses her own car to work, as do her two partners. The
result: 3 more cars in the city for 3 more people.
Most of the companies I deal with are 15 to 20km away from my office.
We deliver goods all over the Gauteng area. How should we do this - on
a bicycle?
I live in the North East of Johannesburg. There are no amenities in
the vicinity. The nearest restaurant is 3km away, the nearest mall is
10km away, my golf club is 10km away, and the nearest reasonable
nightlife is 15km away. I cannot see, in the foreseeable future at
least, a time where I would be comfortable to go out at night relying
on public transport. I therefore will, and MUST, use my car after
hours as well as during the day.
Car-free cities are like dolphin friendly tuna - they sound good, but
they really don't exist.
By the way, I have visited, and worked in Senegal. You may be able to
create a few small car-free communities there, but to talk about a
car-free Dakar is ludicrous idealism.
Just my 2c worth...
Marc - Johannesburg
On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:18:22 -0600, "Steve Austin"
wrote:
>Check out Ivory Park on the outskirts of Johannesburg and travel to Senegal.
>"Marc Lurie" wrote in message
>news:e5f980533eg0j5hpilmv6s579vqp98vi31@4ax.com...
>> On 19 Apr 2004 19:11:06 -0700, johnmunch@qwest.net (Joey Jolley)
>> wrote:
>>
>> >As ecovillages get built in South Africa and Senegal, count on the
>> >cities in both countries going car-free in the near future.
>>
>> Not in my lifetime.
>>
>> Marc - Johannesburg
>>
>
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