A STUDY OF PARKING AND TRAFFIC DEMAND ON BEHALF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT

The Department of Transport is carrying out a programme of research into urban traffic congestion, its causes and its possible cures. As a part of this programme the Department has commissioned research from MVA Consultancy into the potential to use parking controls as a means of restricting traffic demand. The research brief described the overall objective of the study as: To study the possible ways of using parking controls to reduce traffic demand in congested urban areas, either in isolation or in conjunction with other measures, including the financial implications for local authorities and what new legislation might be required. This paper describes the work undertaken so far in the review of parking controls and the development of measures to control traffic demand. The MVA project concentrates on 70 English towns of over 100,000 population (excluding London). The study excludes measures designed to affect residential parking, parking of goods vehicles, and measures affecting loading and unloading. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 863556.