See: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/02/ultimate-one-st.html
Someone asked about the ultimate city plan. I have that too, conceptually.
The biggest problem with any city is all the traffic. And much of that traffic can be avoided if the city is designed right. I imagine homes above ground, connected by a network of underground bike and robot paths.
The bike paths would allow weather-free, flat paths, and parking, from anywhere to anywhere in the city. No cars to contend with, and wide enough for senior citizens to putter around in their trikes while kids zip around in the fast lane.
The robots would be like larger versions of the Roomba vacuum cleaning robot, but designed to pick up and deliver merchandise and food from one place to another. Every home would have an elevator to the underground area where the robots would deliver goods and wait for you to unload.
Imagine ordering anything you want over the Internet, and your cell phone alerts you when the delivery robot is waiting beneath your house to be unloaded. It can wait all day, because there are plenty of robots to go around. The robots would have their own dedicated paths, separate from the bikes, and accessible only by service technicians.
Commuting would be unnecessary if your co-workers and most customers also lived in the city. Each home would be equipped with a home office (or two) that provides the ultimate telecommuter setup. Just insert your earpiece and have your avatars hold online virtual meetings. If you need to courier documents or prototypes, the underground robots do it in minutes.
Homes would be built in clusters around comprehensive health club facilities, like the one near me, www.ClubSports.com. It has everything from spa facilities to yoga to tennis to rock climbing to dancing. Membership would be included in city taxes, and would pay for itself in reduced healthcare.
When you needed to travel beyond your block, but within the city, taxis and public transit would do most of that job.
That’s the basic outline of the ultimate future city. It still needs work.
The professional urban planners amongst us might have a quiet chuckle to themselves, but it is an area that many people, from many walks of life (so to speak) are rather interested in - anything that they now perceive directly affects their amenity of life.
Remind me one day to post my extended ideas on urban planning (and comments on this post).
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