Substantial improvements in public transport provision have been achieved in tyne and wear through the investment in the metro. To encourage travellers to transfer from their cars to the metro system, tyne and wear county council built or improved car parks at a number of metro stations. This report describes the combined effect of that car parking provision and the metro in attracting park and ride trips. the number of cars parked by metro passengers has increased by six times compared with the number of cars parked by br passengers previously, from about 200 to about 1,200. Overall, there has been a two-fold increase in parking levels around stations since metro opened, to about one third of the total capacity. Fares paid by passengers using park and ride generated approximately PoundsSterling 0.8 m per annum in fares revenue in 1984. While theoretical studies suggest that there should be a small reduction in peak traffic flows on some roads due directly to park and ride, there has been no actual significant reduction in traffic congestion. This is not surprising since between 1979 and 1984 there was a 14 per cent increase in car ownership. On one busy part of the metro system, park and riders are contributing to capacity problems during the morning peak. These and other findings are discussed in the report.
Abstract