While not perfect, this type of development is already a step-up above the unwalkable so called "power center". They have great upgrade potential when we'll figure out public transport. The parking lots closest to the walkable public strip can be turned into mixed use buildings.
Solving infrastructure and public transit problems is not the job of real estate developers. It is our job as a society. There has to be political consensus on how we want our communities to be planned. The developer will then do what they can with the rules we impose.
Unfortunately, the consensus is largely that we love cars. Maybe we should be paying for influential people to spend a month without a car in a walkable european city.
> Maybe we should be paying for influential people to spend a month without a car in a walkable european city.
It is not just being walkable in European cities - it is also a lot to do with workable public transport.
Sure, I could walk the 2 miles from Point A to B, but in a bus/tram/metro/train that will take 5 mins rather than 30 walking it.
Even then though it is often only workable right in the center of town where there is a lot of good coverage. Most people will live further out where affordability is more realistic. At least for me about "half-way" out from the center of London, getting to my local grocery store is a 33 minute walk, 27 minute bus (assuming I did not have to wait at the stop at all first), or just an 8 minute drive.
Note also that the bus would be a £3.40 return ticket, which is enough for about 2.5-3 litres of petrol. A toyota prius that can do about 3.7l/100KM means that for the price of a bus ticket you could cover about 68KM (~42 miles) or for a tesla 3 that gets 240Wh/mile charging @ £0.24/khw you'd get about 95KM (~59 miles). For the case of this example where it is about a 5 mile round-trip, you'd be looking at 9 or 12 return trips to the grocery store depending on if you took the prius or the tesla, for the cost of a single round-trip on the bus.
It is doable without a car, but not easy. You get into a situation where you are trading off trying to carry 20+KG of shopping back on the (crowded) buses vs taking multiple separate trips a week (...and the £3.40 monetary cost + minimum 54 minute travel time cost). And it might be raining (not easy to hold an umbrella when you have 16 carrier bags you are trying to lug). With a car you can easy haul back many 10s of KGs of shopping in one trip, while staying dry, with just 16 minutes spent getting there and back ... and in a car you are guaranteed a seat too :)
Personally I did the trade off and found that having a car for day-to-day life is just so much easier (not just for shopping but for all sorts), but obviously I'd never drive into the centre of London (if nothing else, there is nowhere to park) and happily walk + get the tube when in the centre of town. Driving to work just feels 100% alien here :)
We won't figure out transport though: there is no place for transit to run. The streets near some stores are far from others. The parking lot is the best place, but you are still running down the middle of them far from any store.
Solving infrastructure and public transit problems is not the job of real estate developers. It is our job as a society. There has to be political consensus on how we want our communities to be planned. The developer will then do what they can with the rules we impose.
Unfortunately, the consensus is largely that we love cars. Maybe we should be paying for influential people to spend a month without a car in a walkable european city.