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Mainly because a whole bunch of development stopped in 2008/2009 after the sub prime banking crash, it now seems to be starting again at this stage with a lot of new housing development. The P&R didnt open until much later. A more important problem became apparent in 2012 when heavy rain resulted in half the site being flooded meaning that much land that had been zoned for development ended up as a country park.
The P&R Site was planned and built in 2015 and was intended to act as transport hub where residents could dump their cars and catch a bus into town but there were never enough passengers and so no bus service. In 2017 they restarted housing development but once again fate took a hand and it halted again in 2020 due to Covid.
I believe there is a new development plan but not what it calls for as I lost touch when I moved back up north in 2016.
One thing that perhaps has made the Colchester Park & Ride less successful is that it doesn't directly serve the main routes into the city. Surely people are less likely to use them if it involves going further out of their way instead of directly on their route? Most of the time they are built in these locations at the intersections of key rural routes with the bypass, but a lot of people going into the city from the north won't be going via junction 28, and they definitely won't do so from the south or west. Unless they were to build a bypass of Horkesley Heath to redirect A134 north traffic directly to this junction, it's clearly not going to attract people coming from that direction either. It might make more sense to have had a Park & Ride near junction 29 or 26/27 depending on which flow you are trying to target (though I recognise those junctions didn't have loads of space for development around them or a purpose-built corridor with more room for bus priority measures.)
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jabbaboy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:00All P&R's are useless imo when it involves buses unless the place your going to doesn't have any parking at all (like Whitby or York) or it's through the roof pricing wise and you pick up some workers who can't afford to pay the price.
Even in York you can find council-owned car parks in the city centre that are economically priced. When you factor in the waiting and journey time on the bus, it takes no less time and costs very little more to just drive in to the centre and park here.
jabbaboy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:00All P&R's are useless imo when it involves buses unless the place your going to doesn't have any parking at all (like Whitby or York) or it's through the roof pricing wise and you pick up some workers who can't afford to pay the price.
Even in York you can find council-owned car parks in the city centre that are economically priced. When you factor in the waiting and journey time on the bus, it takes no less time and costs very little more to just drive in to the centre and park here.
It really does depend on your stay and circumstances.
A single person in their car parking all day at St George's Fields may pay £16, which is substantially more than the £3.60 bus return fare. But a group of three adults parking for 4 hours would pay £10.80 to park, exactly the same as the bus. On fairly small things the convenience and saving of a P&R can vary! And of course in York if your day benefits from or isn't inconvenienced by a 15 minute flat walk, you can park for nothing at Hospital Fields Road.
When I was working in Belfast city I used a P+R site on the outskirts of the city that was halfway along the journey.
The arterial routes are very congested, and parking can be expensive. The P+R buses were frequent and cost less than parking. Time-wise, it was an hour either way regardless of driving in or P+R, short wait and bus along the bus lanes.
However now I'm not working in the city centre, on the rare occasions I need to visit I would probably just drive in and park up, the "top-up" bus journey card expired sometime during lockdowns too, and they changed the service to be less frequent.
I what like to ask if there is an optimal distance (i.e. what works best) when travelling by bus between a P&R facility and a town/city centre? At a guess this might be about 3miles or 5km? Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
Jim606 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:54
I what like to ask if there is an optimal distance (i.e. what works best) when travelling by bus between a P&R facility and a town/city centre? At a guess this might be about 3miles or 5km? Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
jabbaboy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:00All P&R's are useless imo when it involves buses unless the place your going to doesn't have any parking at all (like Whitby or York) or it's through the roof pricing wise and you pick up some workers who can't afford to pay the price.
Even in York you can find council-owned car parks in the city centre that are economically priced. When you factor in the waiting and journey time on the bus, it takes no less time and costs very little more to just drive in to the centre and park here.
I had never been to Whitby before this June. Didn't know anything about local parking or a park and ride, but before thinking about any of that, shoved the car right here and walked into the centre. Parking brake was sound but angled the wheels into the kerb, I think which I got from A. Tom Topper's How to Drive in Pictures aged about 14.
Jim606 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:54
I what like to ask if there is an optimal distance (i.e. what works best) when travelling by bus between a P&R facility and a town/city centre? At a guess this might be about 3miles or 5km? Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
jabbaboy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:00All P&R's are useless imo when it involves buses unless the place your going to doesn't have any parking at all (like Whitby or York) or it's through the roof pricing wise and you pick up some workers who can't afford to pay the price.
Even in York you can find council-owned car parks in the city centre that are economically priced. When you factor in the waiting and journey time on the bus, it takes no less time and costs very little more to just drive in to the centre and park here.
I had never been to Whitby before this June. Didn't know anything about local parking or a park and ride, but before thinking about any of that, shoved the car right here and walked into the centre. Parking brake was sound but angled the wheels into the kerb, I think which I got from A. Tom Topper's How to Drive in Pictures aged about 14.
jabbaboy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:00All P&R's are useless imo when it involves buses unless the place your going to doesn't have any parking at all (like Whitby or York) or it's through the roof pricing wise and you pick up some workers who can't afford to pay the price.
Even in York you can find council-owned car parks in the city centre that are economically priced. When you factor in the waiting and journey time on the bus, it takes no less time and costs very little more to just drive in to the centre and park here.
You are spot-on. It is the same situation in Colchester, where the P&R is only running at 17% of full capacity and the central car parks are still very well used, economically priced and more convenient in comparison. Basically, I think ECC/Colchester Council still wants the money from these, but also wants to operate a P&R facility in line with other towns/cities. They are trying to improve the service and are in the process of constructing a dedicated bus lane on the Northern Approach Road which may speed up journey times.
I used the Whitby one last year, really good. Car Park has plenty of spaces, clean toilet facilities, and a cheap and quick ride into town.
I've used a few P+R in the last few years. I do worry about the future for some of them, one in Salisbury (Petersfinger) looked very lightly used, maybe/hopefully I just went on a quiet day. On the flipside, York, Scarborough, Oxford services were all busy when I used them.
Interesting that the Birstall P+R to the north of Leicester has been mentioned. As was correctly pointed out, it was used as a Covid testing site for a long time. Before and after that though, the car park has never appeared particularly busy whenever I've driven by. I'll have to give it a go next time I need to be in Leicester city centre for any length of time. Although ironically that only tends to be when I'm taking my car in for a service.
It's a shame most, if not all, P+R don't run late into the evening. I'd like to use the Portsmouth one whenever I'm down that way, but often I'll not be departing the city until long after the P+R has closed for the day.
multiraider2 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 20:59
I had never been to Whitby before this June. Didn't know anything about local parking or a park and ride, but before thinking about any of that, shoved the car right here and walked into the centre. Parking brake was sound but angled the wheels into the kerb, I think which I got from A. Tom Topper's How to Drive in Pictures aged about 14.
On-street parking in Whitby is free out of season. In-season it's wise to try to get a North Yorkshire council parking disc (available from, e.g. the tourist information office) for the time-limited free spaces, plus this can be used in any other town in the county with a "Disc Zone". Hotels without car parks can also issue permits for overnight free parking on street - when we stayed at the Pier Hotel (actually a pub with rooms) on Pier Road, they gave us such a permit and we parked round the corner on the Khyber Pass (yes, this is a real street name, my wife didn't believe me at first) after unloading, in a space that was otherwise P&D with a time limit.
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FWIW, two of the Bristol Park & Rides have now combined, with the buses running between the two sites end-to-end via the centre of Bristol instead of being completely separate routes - Portway and Bath Road P&Rs.
Jim606 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:54
Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
Halfway park and ride is nearly 9 miles by road from the centre of Sheffield, while Nunnery Square is less than a mile.
There's also the Rotherham Central park and ride site, which is 250m from Rotherham centre - but that's arguably disqualified as you can only use it if taking a train (to somewhere other than Rotherham). In fact it seems to be more a "station car park" rather than "park and ride".
Jim606 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:54
Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
Halfway park and ride is nearly 9 miles by road from the centre of Sheffield, while Nunnery Square is less than a mile.
There's also the Rotherham Central park and ride site, which is 250m from Rotherham centre - but that's arguably disqualified as you can only use it if taking a train (to somewhere other than Rotherham). In fact it seems to be more a "station car park" rather than "park and ride".
Jim606 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:54
Also, which P&R's in the UK are the furthest and nearest to a central area?
Halfway park and ride is nearly 9 miles by road from the centre of Sheffield, while Nunnery Square is less than a mile.
There's also the Rotherham Central park and ride site, which is 250m from Rotherham centre - but that's arguably disqualified as you can only use it if taking a train (to somewhere other than Rotherham). In fact it seems to be more a "station car park" rather than "park and ride".
Warwick Parkway opened in 2000 and I know people who regularly use one of the 700+ places and commute into either Birmingham (18 miles) or London Marylebone (81 miles).
Meadowhall (Sheffield) P&R is a failure in that if you aren't there by 7am during the week, it's full. With the exception of half a dozen or so disabled spaces that are never taken. These remain empty, I suspect, due to the topography of the station, it needs a few lifts to enable easier access to all four platforms, the tram and the bus station IMHO. Expanding the parking, whilst difficult, would also be a good idea. It might not be full until 7:15 then
Patience is not a virtue - it's a concept invented by the dozy beggars who are unable to think quickly enough.
