Eh?

Most town centres (and most suburban centres of London) have on-street
parking restrictions covering the whole of Saturday afternoon
(typically 8am-6.30pm Monday to Saturday).

Central London is highly unusual in allowing free parking on Saturday
afternoon on streets where it is banned on weekdays.

"Richard Adamfi" wrote in message
oups.com...
Eh?

Most town centres (and most suburban centres of London) have on-street
parking restrictions covering the whole of Saturday afternoon
(typically 8am-6.30pm Monday to Saturday).

Central London is highly unusual in allowing free parking on Saturday
afternoon on streets where it is banned on weekdays.

I remember when people used to be encouraged to shop in town centres,
parking was simple, free - or very cheap, and charged after the event
(avoiding the PRP parking vultures). Its no wonder that our towns and
villages are becoming a local shop, maybe a pub, and 16 estate agents.
Destroying the town in the anti-private-transport quest.
--
Everything above is the personal opinion of the author, and nothing to do
with where he works and all that lovely disclaimery stuff.
Posted in his lunch hour too.

Paul Weaver wrote:
"Richard Adamfi" wrote in message
oups.com...

Eh?

Most town centres (and most suburban centres of London) have on-street
parking restrictions covering the whole of Saturday afternoon
(typically 8am-6.30pm Monday to Saturday).

Central London is highly unusual in allowing free parking on Saturday
afternoon on streets where it is banned on weekdays.


I remember when people used to be encouraged to shop in town centres,
parking was simple, free - or very cheap, and charged after the event
(avoiding the PRP parking vultures). Its no wonder that our towns and
villages are becoming a local shop, maybe a pub, and 16 estate agents.
Destroying the town in the anti-private-transport quest.

Yes, that must be it... not trying to save our town centres from
becoming car-jammed polluted nightmares.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...
I remember when people used to be encouraged to shop in town centres,
parking was simple, free - or very cheap, and charged after the event
(avoiding the PRP parking vultures). Its no wonder that our towns and
villages are becoming a local shop, maybe a pub, and 16 estate agents.
Destroying the town in the anti-private-transport quest.

Yes, that must be it... not trying to save our town centres from
becoming car-jammed polluted nightmares.

Save it for who? Theres no reason to go into most town centres now.

If you really want to stop the polution, noise and smells, you'd have
pedestrianised streets in the middle with NO BUSSES, and you'd have cheap
(or free - theres a thought!) carparks nearby. Effectivly it would become an
out-of-town shopping center, in the middle of town.

On a similar point, why do station carparks charge you money? When I lived
near Warrington the local station had a small (free) car park, as well as
plenty of space 50 yards away in the shopping center car park. 20 minutes
from Birchwood and you're in the center of Manchester.

If you want to encourage people to use trains, why charge them to park at
the stations? Why not make park and rid schemes (for commuting. carrying a
bookshelf or a weeks shopping back on the train just isn't a nice thing to
do) cheap, safe, reliable and easy.

--
Everything above is the personal opinion of the author, and nothing to do
with where he works and all that lovely disclaimery stuff.
Posted in his lunch hour too.

Paul Weaver wrote:

Save it for who? Theres no reason to go into most town centres now.

Sadly, this is the case. However, I'm always a believer in supporting
your local traders - both market and shops - even if it means paying an
extra penny or two on a bag of spuds.

It was actually *more* hassle getting the car out and driving to a
supermarket than it was walking to the local market - having lived in
Streatham (using Brixton market), Fulham and Hammersmith this was the
case every single time.

For many of us in the sticks public transport is a pain in the bum tho
(I'm now in Wakefield).

--
Joel Rowbottom - joel at fotopic dot net - Head Guy, Fotopic.Net
10M+ photos :: 200+ countries :: Free gallery at http://fotopic.net
Stuck for gifts? Mugs, t-shirts, jewellery: http://shop.fotopic.net
Fotopic V6 launched - loads of new features, easier to use, try it!

Paul Weaver wrote:

Save it for who? Theres no reason to go into most town centres now.

Of course, many people still have need to visit
shops/banks/businesses/work places etc. which traditionally reside in
town centres. Even today, many people don't have car-based out-of-town
shopping areas nearby.


If you really want to stop the polution, noise and smells, you'd have
pedestrianised streets in the middle with NO BUSSES, and you'd have
cheap
(or free - theres a thought!) carparks nearby. Effectivly it would
become an
out-of-town shopping center, in the middle of town.

Some towns have punished buses by doing the above and are effectively
only used by people who have no car. This is normally done by building
a bus station far from the shops - the intention by the council being
to get buses 'out of the way'.

Some more enlightened towns allow buses to serve the places in the town
centre where people want to go, and have better bus use as a result,
especially where attempts to curb car use have also been employed. See
Oxford for an example of best practice.

On a similar point, why do station carparks charge you money? When I
lived
near Warrington the local station had a small (free) car park, as
well as
plenty of space 50 yards away in the shopping center car park. 20
minutes
from Birchwood and you're in the center of Manchester.

If you want to encourage people to use trains, why charge them to
park at
the stations? Why not make park and rid schemes (for commuting.
carrying a
bookshelf or a weeks shopping back on the train just isn't a nice
thing to
do) cheap, safe, reliable and easy.

I would bet that you now live in the south. The rail commuting
patterns in the north and south differ dramatically.

In the north, even in metropolitan areas, free parking is given to rail
users to try and get more people to park at stations and use the
trains. There aren't so many people doing this, so even with this
policy the car parks usually aren't full. For example, nearly all
Midland Metro stations, along with most rail stations in the West
Midlands give free parking. Obviously this can't happen where the
station is in the town centre or else non-rail users would park there
all day. Nevertheless, some areas have greatly increased their rail
usage and are now reviewing their free parking policies.

In the south, trains are far busier. There is huge pressure on the
commuter network and if free parking was offered, the car parks would
be totally overloaded. Indeed, Chiltern Railways, concerned about
severe overcrowding at Bicester North station, have introduced a
'Taxibus' service to try and cut down on parking at the station.

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 01:48:29 -0800, Richard Adamfi wrote:
In the south, trains are far busier. There is huge pressure on the
commuter network and if free parking was offered, the car parks would be
totally overloaded. Indeed, Chiltern Railways, concerned about severe
overcrowding at Bicester North station, have introduced a 'Taxibus'
service to try and cut down on parking at the station.

So on one hand we have the government trying to force us onto trains, and
on the other hand we have TOCs saying "no more!"

There's no problem with overcrowding on the Reading-London stopping
service aside from about an hour (arriving paddington 8AM-9AM).

The solution seems quite clear, the government should encourage flexi-time
and home working with tax breaks, and the TOCs should have off peak
tickets (the ~07:15 arrival at paddington is NOT a peak train)

Of course this would reduce TOC revenue (they want to cram as many people
into the carriages at as high a price as possilbe), and less people
driving means less money for the government.

--
Everything I write here is my personal opinion, and should not be taken as fact.