Motorists from rural south Nottinghamshire are benefiting from an innovative car parking scheme designed to ease their access to city centre transport.
Nottinghamshire County Council has launched what it believes to be the first ‘pocket’ park and ride site in the country.
The site, at Cotgrave Welfare Scheme near Bridgford, will allow people from the south Nottinghamshire area to leave their vehicles in a private car park that is little used by its owners during the day and to catch one of the buses that stop there to complete their journeys to town.
There are only 33 spaces in the car park but the Council has funded improvements to the site including a new bus stop, signage, and CCTV cameras to assist security.
Although this initiative provides only a small amount of parking, the Council hopes it will relieve congestion on some of the busier commuter routes into the City of Nottingham and make things easier for rural motorists. If successful, the scheme could be repeated elsewhere.
Many living in communities where there is only sparse public transport provision depend on the car to shop, get children to school and to access work. Rural communities are particularly hard hit by high parking prices, rising fuel costs and environmental considerations.
The Nottinghamshire scheme is at least the start of a process that may provide an affordable link between rural communities which are not well served by public transport and areas which benefit from frequent services.
of course, given you still have to drive to the parking spaces, it doesn’t benefit any rural residents who dont want to or can’t drive for half their journey, so like all P+R schemes it doesn’t do anything to encourage a functional public transport system for rural areas. You are correct then, in your statement that “motorists will benefit”, as nobody else will.