TICKET TO RIDE

A Park and Ride Workshop has been recently held in Bath to review the success of schemes in many English historic cities. Schemes are viewed as a means of shifting long-stay parkers from city centres and form an integral part of a balanced transport policy. Sites should be on a main radial route, with a minimum of 500 parking spaces. Appearance and design are important factors and a bus should be always standing, not departing until its successor is in place. Motorists should be encouraged to use them, finding few alternatives within city centres. Most bus services are operated between 7.30am to 6.30pm at 10 to 12 minute intervals with 15 minutes considered an outside maximum. Services are supported in several ways; some have no subsidies, some are operated on a cost contract basis and others are registered as commercial services. Free parking and under-16 travelling seem to be universal. Patronage is uniformly split between shoppers and commuters in Oxford, whilst 80 per cent of Chester's users are shoppers. Usage was generally increasing; Park and Ride was likely to increase in the 1990s. (TRRL) (Author/TRRL)