 |
 |
 |
 |
eCommunities. . .
. . . have emerged as a result of environmental legislation and growing consumer demands for alternative transportation and energy sources. These are sustainable communities that embrace air and noise pollution reduction and energy efficiency improvements. This, in turn, leads to less need for land required for streets, parking, and garages. They also consist of nearby shopping, neighborhood schools, and allow for access to desirable, energy efficient vehicle share systems and transit systems to non-local destinations. Enhanced benefits to the communities include more effective and non-intrusive security, wireless communication capabilities, and access to alternative energy fuel stations. The availability of cleaner engine technologies, hydrogen, fuel cells, and the development of increasingly sophisticated power system management systems have made the formation of these communities possible.
There are different types of eCommunities serving a wide variety of needs including the following:
Master Planned Communities (MPC’s) are new communities designed in accordance with the principles of New Urbanism or Smart Growth. Their primary focus is on ensuring that developers meet the requirements of local planning authorities, including air pollution mitigation. They also help developers improve the home owner value proposition by reducing the land area devoted to automobile use, providing more home for the money and qualifying for location efficient mortgages (LEMs). MPCs are experiencing significant growth both in absolute terms and as a proportion of new home builds with over 2000 in the US.
Military bases and ports include a wide range installations for all branches of the military and security forces of the US and other countries. This type of community includes airports, seaports and truck ports. Like MPCs, these communities are trying to reduce traffic and congestion, with security being an overriding additional consideration. A managed, monitored, contained transportation system offers them many significant benefits. There are 230 large US military bases and well over 1000 large international airports.
Educational, institutional, laboratory, and office campuses include universities, government laboratories, modern business parks and other public institutions. Traffic reduction leads to increased safety and a better sense of community. Car sharing programs are attractive as they offer low cost access to personal transportation while at the same time reducing the amount of campus space devoted to parking. There are 1900 colleges in the US.
Parks and recreation areas include state and national parks as well as private resorts. Here the primary need is to reduce air pollution, congestion and the land use associated with personal cars. There is also a significant public outreach and education opportunity for these new ideas. There are 69 National Parks and over 120 major state parks in the US.
Municipalities (towns and cities) are established communities that are experimenting with new ways to optimize the use of land under government control. They include many resort or island communities where civic leaders have previously banned or limited personal automobiles. They also include back-fill or re-development in larger communities or communities experimenting with limiting automobiles in their core downtowns.
Industrial facilities include factories, power plants, food and fiber processing facilities, refineries, and other such installations. Most have major requirements to move material and most are struggling to meet indoor air-pollution regulations. A managed network of zero or low emission utility and service vehicles can help them achieve multiple objectives from increasing vehicle efficiency to improving air quality. There are 1000 s of such facilities.
Retail and commercial centers include large shopping malls and retail centers that have growing needs to move people and goods. They include big box retailers and large distribution centers that need efficient, safe transportation and improved air quality.
|
 |
