Thanks for this link. I also read the Charter for the New Urbanism and was not impressed by the lack of actual good policy to create incentives for communities and localities to adopt environmentally friendly design and development. This is what bothers me a lot about the environmental movement and other movements in general (cultural support, arts-funding, etc).. is that the advocates of these causes believe that everyone should share the same view as they hold. This is just unreasonable and impossible to expect. To advance our movement(s) we all need to speak a common language. And today that language is money and the market.
Market-Oriented New Urbanism by Chris Fiscelli touches briefly on the way the movement should move. (http://www.rppi.org/marketnewurban.html). Yes, these plans of development should have a market for them before they are developed. Otherwise, results are disasterous and do not actually give the people what they really want.
I believe that cars are here to stay. I have worked in many low-income communities in urban centers and these areas are so devoid of any business or resource that any way to escape is with a car -- Public transportation is a shame and no cabs hardly ever venture into these areas. Plus, cars and the production of cars is a culture -- so much so that Discovery Channel(!!) has non-stop car shows (drives me crazy -- pardon the pun ).
In my neighborhood, I believe that any new develop *should* provide adequate car space for each unit - otherwise, cars will continue to infest the streets and make parking a nightmare.
