(PRWEB) December 1, 2005 -- Acroscape has released a white paper about an Autoway-oriented garden city of the future. As a new automated personal transportation system for passengers and light freights, Autoway will change the way we build our homes, communities, and cities. A concept of vertical village is introduced as a walkable community with many amenities. A garden city of the future can have a better quality of life and a large open green space, but will consume much less energy. This will serve as a starting point for urban development in the 21st century.
“ You never need to mow the lawn, but you have a large garden within walking distance. ”
When Autoway is commercially developed, it will be first deployed to relieve the traffic congestion. Then Autoway-oriented housing and communities will be established to specifically take advantage of this new transportation system. “It is the job of city planners, urban architects, and real estate developers to figure out the best urban design. The vertical village and the garden city are just examples to stimulate new ideas”, said Dr. Hengning Wu, the inventor of Autoway.
The vertical village provides several layers of two-story housing units with an indoor street at each layer. Proper soundproof construction will give each two-story housing the privacy of a home and easy access to public places on the indoor street. Each layer resembles a traditional village with its walkable street and other amenities such as coffee shops, restaurants, and recreational facilities. Several layers of such structures are connected by elevators and stairways. A cluster of several buildings can become a large vertical village. Therefore, the vertical village is a walkable place with a strong sense of community.
The Autoway guideway is built to every housing unit. People can use the Autoway transportation directly from their home. Freights can be delivered directly into each house. E-commerce will become the major form of shopping due to the automatic, fast, and low-cost delivery capability of Autoway. An E-commerce showcase may be installed in front of the house to exhibit products. As a result, the vertical village is also a shopping center.
“The goal of the vertical village is to provide a carefree, convenient, and comfortable setting for urban residents. You never need to mow the lawn, but you have a large garden within walking distance. You never need to worry about the weather”, said Dr. Wu.
The Autoway oriented garden city will be first a garden. The open green space will be the background, and in this sea of open green space there are many islands of man-made structures for living and working. The size of these islands is generally limited to walking distance. A mixing of residential areas and business areas forms a district in a city.
“When people talking about a garden city, what come to their mind is the low population density suburb. An Autoway oriented garden city could easily achieve a population density of 10,000 per square kilometer. That is 25,600 per square mile. We are talking about the living standard of the United States. This would be a surprise to many people”, said Dr. Wu.
The garden city has three major urban transportation networks of Autoway, road, and trail. Together they meet the diverse and complicated urban transportation demands efficiently and effectively. Autoway will be the major mode of transportation for commuting and delivery of light freights at a high speed. Roads will be mainly used by trucks for heavy freights and buses for group activities. Trails are for walking and bicycling. The trail network will reach every place in the garden city. Some people will take the trail to work, but most people will use it for recreational purposes. There will be significant increase in the miles of trails in the future.
The separation of road and street is an important feature of the garden city. Roads are exclusively for motorized vehicles and streets are mainly for walking. Streets exist only around business and residential buildings, so they do not form a complete network. Occasionally, ambulances, fire trucks, delivery trucks and other vehicles will use the streets for access to some buildings.
The automobile-oriented suburban areas in the United States can be readily converted to Autoway-oriented communities step by step. Autoway-oriented cities are the rational choice for developing countries like China and India undergoing vast urbanization.
What will be achieved in an Autoway-oriented garden city? Gone are the days of traffic congestion. Energy consumption for commuting and household energy consumption will be reduced by one order of magnitude. We will significantly reduce the oil dependence of urban transportation and related air pollution. Traffic related deaths will also be reduced by one order of magnitude, or nearly one million people saved every year worldwide.
More importantly, an Autoway-oriented garden city offers a better quality of life. We will have walkable residential villages with a strong sense of community. We will provide school children, senior citizens, and people with disabilities the freedom and mobility unavailable in the past. We will get a large garden for our children to explore. Along the way, we will create millions of jobs and a lasting economic boom.
The article "Garden City of the Future, an Inventor’s Vision" is available at http://www.acroscape.com/garden.pdf.
About Acroscape: Acroscape is an independent invention business focusing on fundamental technologies.
