titlepage/contents pg 1-16 - British Parking Association

Formulating Parking Interventions 71Park–and–Ride Car ParksPark-and-ride car parks can beprovided at railway stations or inassociation with frequent busservices to town and city centres.Park-and-ride may also beprovided for access tooccasional or special attractionswhere there is an advantage tokeeping parking “off-site” forsafety, traffic or environmentalreasons. Given the time and costpenalty of switching modes,people will not use them for shortvisits. For a comprehensiverange of information see thereferences to Parkhurst at theend of the chapter (1).The justification for park-and-rideis usually based on one or moreof the following:●●●To provide additional accessfor car users to a centrewithout increasing parkingsupply in the centre;To enable the amount ofparking in the centre to bereduced, for example toallow the expansion of retailor other activities (therebyrelocating parking out of thecentre);To provide for categories ofcar user who are discouragedfrom parking in the centre, forexample car commuters towork; and● To reduce traffic on roadsleading to the centre, eitherin general or specifically atpeak times.Park-and-ride can reduce trafficin city centres and on the roadsleading to city centres, but maynot reduce car use overall. Sometravellers who would have madethe whole trip by public transportchoose to drive to the fringe ofthe city and use park-and-ride.Careful study is, therefore,necessary to forecast the impacton travel demand, including therelative sensitivities of differentroutes and destinations, beforedeciding to adopt a park-and-ridesolution.Much will depend on whether thefacility is used primarily bycommuters (as with station carparks in the South East) or byshoppers and tourists. Ifdedicated bus services areprovided, these are much lesslikely to be financially viable whenthe car park is used mainly bycommuters, since the buses willhave few passengers in betweenthe peak commuter times. On theother hand, it may be possible toset higher charges forcommuters than for shoppers.The potential advantages ofpark-and-ride include:● Increasing the volume ofvisitors to a centre withoutincreasing parking in thecentre;● Enabling a centre to serve aregional or sub regionalcatchment area that ispredominantly cardependent,without having toaccommodate cars in thecentre itself; and● Enabling a reduction ofparking in a centre byrelocating it to areas withlower land value and/or lowerenvironmental sensitivity.The disadvantages of park-andrideinclude:●●●The car park may take landwithin the walking catchmentof public transport stations orstops, thus pushingdevelopment further away.They may encourage peopleto drive part of the wayinstead of taking publictransport all the way;They may encourage peopleto drive to a park-and-rideserviced centre, rather thanuse public transport to reachan alternative centre; and● Car parks located at the edgeof-townor out-of-town may beenvironmentally intrusive, andmay create pressure for carbaseddevelopment.To be operationally successful,park-and-ride needs to have thefollowing characteristics:●●Located on radial routes withpublic transport priority;Serve a centre with highparking charges and/orlimited parking supply;