The Advantages Of Compact City
Compact City - Elimination Of Urban Sprawl - Flexible Construction - Automatic Deliveries - Airconditioning - Easy Recycling - Low / No Congestion

Automatic Deliveries

An automatic delivery system, could play a fundamental role in Compact City. It gives promise of a simpler way of life. Physically, the system would consist of a series of horizontal beltways on the middle level of the city. These would move objects to be delivered from distribution points to vertical belts which then raise or lower them to the house level where they would be finally deposited. A parallel system would work in the opposite direction. Objects to be delivered would be placed in special containers with a coded address. This address would be read by a photo[-eye and the container would be transferred by lifting it off the belt and placing it on another beltway, or placing it so that it is picked up by the vertical belt.

To be truly effective, the system would have to be tied into a "communication ordering system." For example, routine household items could carry special "reorder labels". The housewife would then place her order by feeding the recorder labels into a special "reorder reader" in her kitchen. The reorder reader would trigger a mechanism controlling a container in, say, a grocery store, and the container would move down a belt past loading points for the various items, stopping wherever the automatic control of a computer dictated. Once collected, the order would be placed on the return automatic delivery system and dispatched to the automatic delivery "dock" in the home.

Many special services could be rendered in this way that are not now economically feasible. For example, food prepared in specialty kitchens could be sent out automatically and returned within , say three hours, washed and dried.

The automatic delivery system might also make convenient the rental of many things only occasionally used around the home. Example of objects that are cluttering shelves and occupying space around the house are tool kits and home decorating equipment, sewing and cooking equipment, extra bedding, and camping equipment. It might be feasible to rent such items as well as magazines, toys, sports and catering equipment, and liquor and bar supplies.

In case of illness, prescriptions, thermometers, vaporizers, bandages, alcohol for rubs, basins, and other small paramedical items could be obtained around the clock, seven days a week, without having to leave the patient unattended. A service like this, combined with possibility of a direct videophone conference between doctor and patient might turn out to be almost as satisfactory as a doctor's visit. In fact, it might turn out to be more satisfactory in some cases, because diagnosis and treatment would take place sooner. In Compact City, all arcades, passageways, shopping centers, streets, and many of the homes and gardens would be beneath the protective cover of the city roof, problems associated with rain, heat, and cold would not exist. There would be a significant decrease in the amount of energy needed to cool or heat a single three-dimensional urban environment insulated from the outside, compared with that required for today's conventional cities.

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