Park and Ride - a filthy phrase for Car Lovers...but....

[feef]

I'll often use the madingley park and ride into Cambridge. Usually only if I know its going to be really busy in town, such as the run up to Xmas. Again, huge carpark, easily accessed and warm waiting rooms.

The parking in town is also not cheap so it does work out cheaper but, given the choice, I'd rather park in town

[anonymous-user]

The Wookie said:

robinessex said:

Instead of buses, why can't we have an overhead cable car system. Don't need any roads, just masts every 100mtrs or so. Like you get in theme parks

Mainly as it would become a sport to drop half eaten McFlurry's on Traffic Wardens as the cars pass overhead... Actually thinking about it I see no downside to this concept, someone needs to make it happen.

If that became a sport, I'd say balls to the expense and travel armed with several full, large Mac's choc milkshakes. And eggs. And cow pats.

[Stu247]

I always thought it meant dogging sites...my bad

[DonkeyApple]

OpulentBob said:

The Wookie said:

robinessex said:

Instead of buses, why can't we have an overhead cable car system. Don't need any roads, just masts every 100mtrs or so. Like you get in theme parks

Mainly as it would become a sport to drop half eaten McFlurry's on Traffic Wardens as the cars pass overhead... Actually thinking about it I see no downside to this concept, someone needs to make it happen.

If that became a sport, I'd say balls to the expense and travel armed with several full, large Mac's choc milkshakes. And eggs. And cow pats.

You'd have the good at dodging the marbles from all the kids with catapults below.

[ThunderSpook]

When I went to Portsmouth if you lived off island you could apply for a permit to use the uni car parks, is that not still the case?

[Matthen]

ThunderSpook said:

When I went to Portsmouth if you lived off island you could apply for a permit to use the uni car parks, is that not still the case?

I suspect not. The majority of universities are in a race to become the "greenest" - the first thing my university did was ban students from driving in and build a biomass generator on the car park.

The majority of unis I visited whilst selecting a university had no parking arrangements for students.

[ecs0set]

If only London had a massive Park and Ride(Tube) somewhere around the top of the M3.

[Justin Case]

I've found them pretty good in historic towns and cities, for example Shrewsbury has three strategically located on the outer ring road. The Dartmouth one is very good as you don't have to actually drive into a town where the average pedestrian makes a lemming look like a Health and Safety adviser.

And not only buses, the West Midlands Metro system has a number of park and ride stations and the trams are convenient for dropping you right in the centre of Birmingham or Wolverhampton.

Edit, we're thinking of going to Stratford on Avon for the day when the weather picks up. The P&R looks well placed for us and reasonably priced, can anyone say whether it's worth using?

Edited by Justin Case on Thursday 29th January 14:25

Edited by Justin Case on Thursday 29th January 14:48

[defblade]

Another -1 to the Oxford scheme of pay to park and pay on the bus.

I used to skip the 2nd fee by taking a folding pushbike in the boot. Real park and ride, right to the door It was quicker than the buses at rush hour, too.

[blueheron]

ThunderSpook said:

When I went to Portsmouth if you lived off island you could apply for a permit to use the uni car parks, is that not still the case?

I was annoyed to discover this in my final 3 months at Pompey, it wasn't well advertised! Oh well, Petrol was less than 90p/l back then

I use the Winchester P&R on a regular basis. £3 all day for parking, driver and passengers ride for free. 3 car parks to choose from, always spaces available. Very regular buses but can get snarled up in traffic at the wrong time of day.
If you get a smartcard + topup from Winchester City Council, the daily fee drops to £2.70.
For anyone arriving after 10.30am, it's £2.50.

Seems like a good deal to me, city centre parking is extortionate.

[blueheron]

Hmm didn't quite mean the bit about Petrol.. meant to say that I shuffled my car around the free bays in the resident zones!

Pistonheads admins - why does editing a post result in a SQL db error?!

[TommoAE86]

Fluid said:

Use the Oxford one all the time, it's great. Beats paying a fortune parking in the city centre.

Not used the one in Winchester yet though.

The one is Winchester is abit pants, the buses don't run all that frequently and the spaces are tight. Plus really in the centre of town there are alot of spaces so it's hard to justify getting on the P&R (even more so with an ever increasing number of shops deserting the high street)!

But the worst thing is the placement of the two sites... you have the original 1 by the M3 at Highcliff end of town (this is south), then another one 1 junction (!!!) down at the St Cross/Twyford end of town (this is also south). Practical upshot of having two sites where they are is that the major roads in from the North are still ruined with queue's and traffic. Morons: 1, Common Sense: 0

[tr7v8]

Conscript said:

tr7v8 said:

Always use Maidstone P & R on a saturday. Have used Cambridge P & R a few times although that is weird because of the routes in.

Maidstone one any good during the week do you know? I have jury duty coming up in a couple of weeks, and although I could park right outside the court, I wont be reimbursed for parking costs, but they will pay for the P&R ticket.
Funnily enough, I've used the Cambridge one too. No issues.

Yup more expensive as a peak ticket before 9:30 but yes still works well. Use the London Road one just off M20 at Aylesford J5 & get off at the first P & R stop which is a two minute walk to the court.

[blueheron]

TommoAE86 said:

The one is Winchester is abit pants, the buses don't run all that frequently and the spaces are tight. Plus really in the centre of town there are alot of spaces so it's hard to justify getting on the P&R (even more so with an ever increasing number of shops deserting the high street)!

But the worst thing is the placement of the two sites... you have the original 1 by the M3 at Highcliff end of town (this is south), then another one 1 junction (!!!) down at the St Cross/Twyford end of town (this is also south). Practical upshot of having two sites where they are is that the major roads in from the North are still ruined with queue's and traffic. Morons: 1, Common Sense: 0

Maybe you had a bad experience, but during the morning and evening the frequency is every 10 minutes. During the day, every 15 mins. I wouldn't call that pants?

There's 3 sites, not 2. Barfield and St Catherines are almost next to each other just off Jct10 and known as 'East'. Barfield is the smallest, gravelly one, spaces are tighter there yes. But St Catherines is fine, and South at Jct11, the newest, is also perfectly fine.

Perhaps if you're only visiting the shops for an hour or so, the P&R is not for you.

However the main users are workers parking all day, working in the city or at the Hospital or Prison. To park all day near my work would cost me £8.

P.S I don't work for the council, I just find the P&R works well for me!

[Pothole]

robinessex said:

Instead of buses, why can't we have an overhead cable car system. Don't need any roads, just masts every 100mtrs or so. Like you get in theme parks

Those open cars would be lovely between October and April....

[Prawo Jazdy]

Quhet said:

Park and ride is great when it works - just like any public transport really.
I've always found the Oxford park and ride to be fine, others not so much...

Oxford takes the piss by charging you to park AND to ride. I just find the free spaces which aren't too far away to walk instead, but then I don't work there, so two hours is usually enough.

[Dannbodge]

It's been a pretty good success in Portsmouth as I always see full buses and carpark at the weekends.

Shame by adding a bus lane they have completely screwed the roads up.
There never used to be traffic at the end of the M275 until they added the bus lane, now it's queued for about a mile every night.

Also if you know where to park it's mega cheap. I used to park in Portsmouth all day for a few quid, just meant I had a 5/10 minute walk into Uni there.


Also speak to the NCP in town as they offer cheap rates for people who need to park all day, it was something like £3 when I was at uni there (I think a member of staff at the uni got the offer going)

Edited by Dannbodge on Thursday 29th January 16:08

[MDMetal]

Living in Cambridge (well just outside nowadays) I've never really been tempted by the P&R mainly on the basis that all the sites closest to me involve the bus using the same lanes as regular traffic. If they ever built proper dedicated bus lanes they'd suddenly become quicker and more useful but the current tactic is reducing a two lane carriage way to one and a bus lane followed by a longer section of bus and cars in the same lane. If I have to check my watch and constantly plan what time to leave or be somewhere then I'd expect the bonus of it being faster than using the car. True you save some parking money (If you don't want to park a bit further an walk) but the rest isn't worth the hassle. Would rather pay a bit extra and have the convenience of the car. I'm sure other cities have thought this through more and have better more usable services though.

[illmonkey]

Oxford is so pro busses and bikes its fustrating. The make the cars go such long ways to get anywhere by blocking off roads. If the blocks were removed, general traffic would be lighter (more roads to move about in) and journeys would be shorter.

But noooo, lets have crap P&R, charge a fortune for it and fk the car driver over while we're at it.

[TommoAE86]

blueheron said:

Maybe you had a bad experience, but during the morning and evening the frequency is every 10 minutes. During the day, every 15 mins. I wouldn't call that pants?

There's 3 sites, not 2. Barfield and St Catherines are almost next to each other just off Jct10 and known as 'East'. Barfield is the smallest, gravelly one, spaces are tighter there yes. But St Catherines is fine, and South at Jct11, the newest, is also perfectly fine.

Perhaps if you're only visiting the shops for an hour or so, the P&R is not for you.

However the main users are workers parking all day, working in the city or at the Hospital or Prison. To park all day near my work would cost me £8.

P.S I don't work for the council, I just find the P&R works well for me!

Yeah I put Barfield and St Catherine's together in one But it's good that it works for people, at least it's doing something right. I could be biased in that my parents used to live nearby and it was terrible then, although no house price effect so it's not that PH reason

The few times I used it after moving away were terrible, at least 30mins between buses etc Just not what was promised in the gumph you get before it.