Parking vouchers are now used in many areas of the United Kingdom. Monitoring exercises mounted by TRL on the introduction of some voucher schemes have highlighted difficulties experienced by motorists in the use of vouchers. New designs of voucher should attempt to facilitate use and increase compliance with instructions for the validation and display of vouchers. A number of different styles of voucher are now in use. All must be approved by the Secretary of State for Transport prior to use by the public. Where more than one type of voucher is used in the same scheme, the instructions and conditions are more or less the same, whichever style of voucher is used. The main variation is in the layout of the scratch-off panels. The European Parking Solutions' (EPS) voucher was introduced in three small areas in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in January 1994, replacing the Telpark voucher which had been in use since October 1991. A comparative study of the two voucher types has been carried out in East Twickenham, part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. A questionnaire survey of motorists parking at the roadside in East Twickenham, carried out six months after the changeover, found few respondents who were aware that a change had occurred. This report presents the results of the study. (A)
Abstract