PARKING AND TRAFFIC DEMAND - THE POLICY BACKGROUND

This paper briefly outlines some aspects of current Department of Transport policy on parking control, which it now sees as a key to managing demand in order to contain urban congestion. The research programme includes work on road pricing in London, and studies on city congestion charging are also ongoing in Edinburgh, Bristol and Cambridge. Research continues on ways of using urban traffic control systems (UTC) in order to manage traffic to reduce congestion, for example by introducing bus priority into the SCOOT UTC system. A study has been commissioned from MVA to investigate the likely impact of controlling the use of the private non-residential (PNR) parking space attached to commercial premises in urban areas. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 863556.