Removing charges leads to greater use of P&R car parks!

The data wranglers at Smart Cambridge have been taking a look at the parking figures at the Park & Ride sites since charges were removed at the beginning of April. I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe, but usage has increased. Yes, really!

So far, the only site relevant to the Busway that they've investigated is Trumpington. The increase there is lower than at Babraham Road - as this Smart Cambridge post explains, this is because Trumpington operates at closer to maximum capacity for some of the time, so the scope for increased usage is diminished.

What the data cannot tell us - this could only be determined by a survey of vehicle users - is whether the additional parking results from drivers who would previously have carried on into the city (clearly a "good thing"), or from those who now undertake the first part of their journey by car or van, where previously it would have been entirely by public transport. If it were to be the latter, then - perversely - the removal of parking charges could actually have led to an increase in the number of vehicles driving into the Cambridge suburbs. But we have no way of knowing.

Free parking to be reinstated next month

Ever since it was introduced in May 2015 - no, let's be honest, it was an issue from the moment it was first announced - the parking charge at the Busway Park & Ride sites has proved controversial. There are many who felt it was counter-productive, hostile to the idea that the County Council should be encouraging people out of their cars and onto public transport.

At last - but in no small measure due to the existence of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, perhaps (it has money!) - the charge is to be removed, and free parking reinstated. This is due to happen on 1 April, and is presumably no April Fool.

The Cambridge Network has more details. Apparently,  according to one prominent councillor: "the removal of the £1 parking fee [is] a positive move to continue to make the Park & Ride the first transport choice for people coming into the city." Some might ask why this argument wasn't more energetically made at the time of the charge's introduction.

Parking Charges at Guided Busway Park and Ride Sites

As previously reported here parking charges were due to be introduced at the St Ives & Longstanton Park & Ride sites "in April".

April is nearly gone, but there are clear preparations at St Ives, and signs stating that charges start on 14th May:

Notice of start of parking charges

There are a total of 7 ticket machines at St Ives - all currently covered over - two groups of 3, and one on its own.

Three behind the toilet block.

 

 

Three near the open area between the bus stops and the parking.

 

 

And one at the east end.

 

Also some additional signs around the car park:

 

 

 



 

Parking charges at busway Park & Ride sites

Parking charges are to start in April at St Ives and Longstanton Park & Ride sites according to an article in the Hunts Post (11 February, page 3).

The daily charge will be £1. There will be monthly ticket (£20) and annual ticket (£230). Prices for longer stay have been published (18-24 hours £10, 24-48 hours £20, 48-72 hours £30).

To prevent 'displacement' parking in Meadow Lane, restrictions will be introduced there.

Also reported by Cambridge News here.

Station Road, St Ives

Followers of the blog will recall that last summer a new bus stop, for guided buses heading towards Cambridge, was erected in Station Road, St Ives. It generated a lot of discussion and controversy, due to the fact that the bus stop caused a constriction in the width of Station Road at a busy town centre junction.

Yesterday, I received a written communication from Ross Hamilton,  Project Officer (Highways) for Cambridgeshire County Council about proposed changes to traffic regulations in Station Road, Priory Road, New Road and Cootes Meadow.

These proposals do not yet seem to have been uploaded to the County Council website - but I will add a link whenever the upload happens.

To summarise, the proposal is to consolidate several previous traffic orders into a single one, and the only material changes will be to  prohibit loading opposite the bus stop, and replace a short (16 metre) parking bay further along the street with a loading bay for the benefit of businesses opposite the bus stop.

The proposals are being advertised in the local press and the consultation period runs form 20 February to 13 March.

The benefit to busway traffic is that the proposal should improve traffic flow at a rather congested section of Station road.

St Ives Bank Holiday Market

I am constantly amazed at the lack of joined up thinking when it comes to Bank Holiday Markets, and the Michaelmas Fair, in St Ives. Market stalls fill the bus station, which is closed to buses for the duration of the market. And so it was today. Buses coming off the busway are diverted from the Park & Ride via Meadow Lane and have been calling at the stop in The Quadrant. There seems to be no published information about this diversion - no notices displayed the the bus station, and nothing, as far as I could see, on the Stagecoach or Busway websites. Huntingdonshire District Council put up notices at either end of The Quadrant to say that the parking bays were out of use during the Bank Holiday Market (presumably to create space for the buses) but the anarchic motorists of St Ives were ignoring the notices. The District Council also put up a notice in Station Road forbidding market traders from setting up the stalls in that road. This meant that guided buses could have used Station Road as normal, and the Meadow Lane diversion was strictly speaking unnecessary. Today, the Bank Holiday Market was a lot smaller than usual (blame the weather) so the usual level of inconvenience for the travelling public was not reached.