Bradford needs to develop extensive park-and-ride facilities, enabling commuters to transfer easily from car to bus for their journeys into the city. The ten most frequent bus routes should be made more accessible to motorists by the provision of strategically-placed car parks some distance from the city centre.
This would complement the popular rail-based park-and-ride provision. The free-to-use car parks, which could take advantage of brownfield or existing sites which are under-used during the day, should be coupled to bus priority measures and a tailoring of city-centre car-parking charges to favour shoppers and visitors over commuters.
The result would be far better bus usage, which would lead to a virtuous circle. There would be less road congestion, meaning that buses would travel quicker and would thus be more attractive to users, while essential car and goods vehicle traffic would also travel more speedily into and out of Bradford.
More revenue for the bus companies would mean less likelihood of fare rises, while the shorter journey times would mean that buses presently held up in congestion could be released to provide improved services at little extra cost. Fewer vehicles entering the city centre would reduce pollution, making the area more attractive to shoppers and visitors.
Bus season tickets offer excellent value within the city, about £2.70 a working day for a three-month county-wide bus Metrocard and about £2 for a single bus-company pass, making "park and bus-ride" the most economic way for most people to commute. As a bonus, evening and weekend travel costs nothing extra.
There is huge potential for Bradford's excellent bus network to be developed to attract more drivers away from their cars, and if this was coupled to better marketing to residents who live within easy walk of a high-frequency bus route, "Park and Ride from your doorstep", the result would be a major reduction in road congestion, and pollution, in Bradford. Every road user benefits if the buses are used more.
Bradford's city centre is less than a mile across so it is easy to see why congestion and parking is a serious and growing problem. Fortunately not everyone works in the centre and many people are willing to walk, cycle or use public transport. Unfortunately, current traffic levels deter walkers and cyclists and also make the buses slow, unreliable and expensive. Our trains are very busy and overcrowded and only serve four corridors into Bradford.
All this puts pressure on people to switch to cars and makes the situation much worse. And it is a vicious circle. It gets worse and worse. But it could get better.
"Park and ride" needs either good train links or frequent bus services. Fortunately we have many high-frequency services (12 minutes or better) into Bradford and most areas are well served. There are seven Overground routes and three other high-frequency services. If congestion were reduced, many routes could have frequency improvements without the need for extra vehicles.
For those with no bus service, or one unsuitable for their needs, "park and ride" can be an excellent answer. About 60 cities and towns now have years of experience with this system. We can repeat their successes and avoid their mistakes!
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