Peachtree City Today: The Golf Cart Community

Peachtree City was planned for 80,000, but this was revised later to about 50,000-40,000, which means it is around the same size planned for Newfields.

Today's street map looks pretty generically suburban...at first.

(the purple is available industrial/office land).

The zoning and plat map tells a different story, showing how the periphery is zoned as large lot housing, whith higher density subdivisions and multifamily in the center. And the open space system winds through the development following creeks and watecourses. One greenway seperaates the housing from the industrial park, as in the original plan.
Greenways are nice, but whats even nicer is that they function as transportation corridors, being the route of a paved pathwy system spidering through Peachtree City.
(color coding on the map show various neighborhood "villages).

A close-up of one "village" showing the path system in red, and the path system drawn over an aerial of the same area; what appears to be a generic (albeit considerably better planned) suburban landscape from the air has a secondary transporation system linking subdivisions, condo complexes, schools, and shopping....

...meaning one is not tied to the car. In Peachtree City the alternative transport is not the bike (though these probably exist, too) but the golf cart.

The path system is really a network of cart paths, some with grade seperation.
And the carts are used for more than just golf. Two pix showing dedicated golf cart parking at a restaurant....
....and a school. Presumably one can also take a cart shopping or to work.

This might sound corny, but golf carts are actuallly a green/sustainable way of doing personal transport. Golf carts eliminate the need for a car for short trips and errands, thus reducing air pollution and traffic congestion. Golf carts also solve some of the passenger/hauling issues that one would have with a bike.




You have to wonder why more suburbs aren't built this way, since the Peachtree City model is such an appealing...and sucessfull...concept.