OXFORD PARK AND RIDE

Oxford Park and Ride

Oxford Park and Ride

Introduction

No attempt was made for the present study to obtain primary data first-hand from users of the Oxford park and ride system simply because a more than sufficient amount of it already exists (for example, WSAtkins 1998; and TAS Partnership 1997).

As early as 1983, solid proposals for a Oxford park and ride were made. The report by the consultant Colin Buchanan and Partners in that year took as its lead the then Ministry of Transport study 'Traffic in towns' of 1963. The 1983 study advocates a park and ride system for Oxford which bears remarkable resemblance to that being implemented over a decade later, the principal difference being a proposed reduction of around 1,500 city centre parking spaces, a policy not carried out.

Usage of Oxford Park and ride in the context of other transport modes

Latest usage data (CambsCC 2000b, p. 18) show that there were 810,000 circular trips on the system per year. This equates to a daily average of around 2,600 users entering and leaving Oxford, based on a 6-day operating week. Usage of park and ride in comparison to other transport modes is a few percentage points at most. A figure of 2.3% vehicles travelling on the radials using park and ride is also given in the Council's data (ibid., p. 20).

It is pertinent to note that Oxford park and ride is often conceptually linked with the Core Scheme (which reduces car access to parts of the city centre) as a package. However, it must be pointed out that the purposes of the scheme are different. In the case of the latter, this is to reduce traffic passing through the city centre. The purpose of park and ride, however, is to enable access to the city centre, a different objective.

Purpose

The Oxfordshire Local Transport Plan, contains mixed messages about the purpose of the Oxford park and ride system, for instance:

"Park and ride is at the forefront of sustainable transport development in the Oxford area" (CambsCC 1999b, p. 136)and "Combined with policies that discourage car use, park and ride is expected to contribute significantly to the economic and environmental well-being of the City and its surrounding area" (ibid., p. 137).

The first of the statements implies that park and ride is sustainable. For reasons to be discussed in the next section, the present study disagrees. The second suggests that park and ride in Oxford is provided for both environmental and economic reasons. Economically, the increasing demand in the city centre economy and the housing growth in the surrounding area of Oxford means that travel into the city is likely to continue to expand, while the environmental role refers to the wish to keep cars out of the city centre. These two roles will now be evaluated.

Oxford park and ride as economic park and ride

This is much more plausible. This is most simply demonstrated by lack of city centre parking reduction, which indicated both in data (CambsCC 1999b, ...