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The aim of a Park and Ride scheme is to enable commuting
traffic or shoppers to leave the car in an out of town location and use an
efficient bus to travel to the city centre.
In a perfect situation the bus should be
:-
·
full
of passengers which could be removing around 48 cars from the road,
·
non
polluting by using modern technology
·
faster because it uses designated bus lanes and is given
priority at traffic lights.
Bristol has three Park and Ride sites,
two of which are controlled by Bristol City Council. The oldest began operation
in 1993 and the most recent has just been completed in 2002.
The bus services operates 7:00 am to 7:00 pm
weekdays
and 8:00 to 7:00 Saturdays. Additional services operate later on
Thursdays to coincide with late night shopping. The service is also extended
into the evenings and on Sundays during the pre-Christmas period.
The weekday service runs a bus every 7 - 10 minutes during
the peak period and every 12 minutes in the off peak period. Saturday service
run every 10 -
12 minutes all day.
Purpose built double-decker buses are used which can carry
76 seated passengers. Displays on the bus show the next stop. The bus routes do
not stop at all local bus stops on the way to minimise the journey time from
car park to city centre.
There is no charge to park at the Park and Ride site and
the peak return adult bus fare costs £2.50 (approximately €4.20). The fares are cheaper during
off peak periods and at weekends. It is also possible to buy 10 or 20 journey
tickets which reduce the cost further. It is also possible to by a season
ticket for 3, 6 or 12 months.
The car parks are monitored by closed-circuit television
and attendants are present while the car parks are open so security is higher
than many other car parks.
Bus surveys
The two older sites have had on-bus surveys conducted on a
typical Thursday and a Saturday in 1996 and 1997. On the typical weekday over two thirds of the
passengers were female but very few were children. The usage of the service is
concentrated around the morning and afternoon peak periods of 7:00 -
9:00 am
and 4:00 - 6:00 pm.
On Saturday the passengers are mainly female (about 70%)
but a higher proportion of children under 16 used the bus than on Thursday. The
journey times are variable though out the day and are usually longer on
weekdays than Saturdays. From one site the average inbound weekday journey time
during the am peak period (12 minutes) is lower than the equivalent pm peak
outbound journey time (16 minutes). This is because there is a greater bus
priority made on inbound journeys.
The main purpose of the journey on weekdays is commuting
which accounted for about 70% of the passengers. Most of these journeys occur
during peak periods. 18% of the passengers were shoppers who travelled mainly
in the off peak period. In contrast, on the Saturday, shoppers account for
around 80% of the passengers while commuters are around 6 - 9%.
From the surveys on Thursdays 54% and 71% of the
passengers said they would have travelled into the city centre if the Park and
Ride was not available as an alternative. A significant number of those surveyed on the
Saturday said, if the Park and Ride was not available, they would have gone
elsewhere such as the neighbouring city of Bath or they would not have travelled
at all.
During the week most of the passengers use the
multi-journey tickets. Most of those surveyed said they used the Park and Ride
because it is easy to park there and they avoid the expensive car parking
charges in the city. Other reasons given were the saving in time, vehicle
security at the car park and it was less stressful than driving in the city.
Passengers survey on a Thursday said that if they
travelled by car before Park and Ride they would have paid to park at an
average cost of £3.20(€5.30). On a Saturday, of those who would have travelled
by car, around 88% said they would have paid to park in public off-street car
parks at an average cost of £2.75 (€4.60).
It is estimated from the survey that the oldest site would
have removed around 500 car trips to the city centre on a weekday and 460 car
trips on a Saturday.
Note that the surveys were conducted in 1996 and 1997. Car
parking in the city centre is now more expensive.
Further information www.bristol-city.gov.uk/transportplanning |