Transport Demand Management in National Parks - Dissertation Example

? Transport Demand Management in National Parks Lecturer Transport Demand Management in National Parks There is crucial need to expand the car parking capacity around the Peak District National Park. The attractions around the park increase the number of cars getting in to the area, thus resulting to congestion. Building a new Car park around the New Forest National Park seems to be the solution at hand. This paper explores the issues of building a new Car Park then presents the findings of a forecast model. Despite the disruptions that follow the construction of a modern Car Park, there was a positive response from the community around the New Forest National and Peak District National Park. The program was a proposal documented in a Scrutiny Review Report of the Environment and Transportation Select Committee, which was cropped from the Hampshire County Council. Introduction Background information Lyndhurst is a civil parish and village located at England’s new Forest in Hampshire. The village forms the administrative center of the New Forest, which bears the district council. It is a popular tourist attraction center and has numerous independent shops, cafes, hotels, restaurants, pubs, art galleries and an 18-hole golf course. These facilities cater for the demands of local population and the tourists. According to the Census data of 2001, Lyndhurst had a population of 2,973 of which, 37% were economically active, 20% are the retired and only 2% are not employed. The average age is 47 years. 77% of the property is owner occupied while 23% is rented (COUNCIL FOR THE PROTECTION OF RURAL ENGLAND, 1988). Lyndhurst is 14 kilometers away from Southampton city to the North-east. Geographically, Lyndhurst village forms the meeting point on the route A35 which runs from the Southampton City to the northeast to Lymington town, situated on the south coast. This link creates a very large volume of traffic, which prompts the usage of one way. Most of the motorists miss parking spaces while seeking for refreshments, meals or even when making stopovers. During season of summer, the traffic swells because of the tourist inflow in to the region. As a result, there is limited space for parking. Conceptual Framework Transport Demand Management is a strategy that applies programs, policies, products and services to trim down the travel order especially among the private vehicle users or restructure the travel demand in to time and space. Actually, the Transport Demand management deals with Transit improvements, Transit incentives, Pay-as-drive insurance, Parking management/pricing and Road pricing. Several studies points out to the growth of economy as the primary reason behind establishing a good parking management, organization, supervision and parking pricing without incorporating other factors like the repercussions on health, time spending and emotional frustrations that come up with limited parking space. According to Fischer (2009), the Transport Demand Management strategy controls the parking prices and the amount of parking available in all the public places across the UK. Transport Demand Management benefits the local communities by lowering their healthcare costs, reducing traffic congestion, increasing their return from investments on transit, carpooling, cycling and public transport systems (Black & Schreffler, 2010). The employers may get low parking rates and better employee retention where as the individuals gain by saving time and costs of delay, convenience and good health (Black, 1997). This collateral research paper explores the proposition of Transport Demand Management is to push for best option available towards solving problems related to the limited parking space in Lyndhurst. Policies on Parking Management The developers should provide the localities with the minimum space for every type of development depending on the magnitude of the development. The costs of developments determines the pricing for parking spaces, as such, parking seem to be offered free of charge to the community. However, the increasing numbers of cars calls for expensive parking rates for the limited number of spaces. The situation decreases driving habits while encouraging alternative modes of travel like using buses. Statement of the research problem The Derbyshire county Council in collaboration with the National Park Authority advocates that a new Car park be introduced in the New Forest national Park. The Government’s Baker Report of 1974 endorsed the necessity of the idea. In 1949, the Hampshire Council made a provision in the New Forest Act to construct a Bus Park with the approval of the Verderers. The project was completed without any hitch. However, there has been a rise of private vehicle usage than the usage of public means. In 2012, there were 79,000 visitors in to the New Forest national park. Not to mention that there were about 16,000 cars. Surely, the statistics call for improved parking system. Statement of purpose Takama and Preston (2008) developed a forecasting model to determine the impact of road tolling and bus based park and ride in the Upper Derwent Valley of the Peak District National Park. In the event, only bus based park and ride has been introduced. This project would review usage of the bus based park and ride in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council and the National Park Authority and undertake user surveys in the Peak District National Park and the New Forest National Park towards including a new car park. This would allow validation of the forecasting model and the testing of its transferability. Target group Management of parking system is usually directed towards visitors, individuals and the business community. The developers utilize the policies to share the parking space among the numerous users. The policies also direct the Derbyshire County Council to implement viable strategies that govern efficient parking like paid parking. Research Questions There are lots of issues concerning the demand to manage the transport in the National parks. However, the following research questions deem to be the most viable for this study? 1. Is the inadequate parking space in Lyndhurst is solvable? Yes? No ? 2. Is the construction of a new Car Park the most viable long term solution to the limited parking space? Yes? No ? 3. Would raising the rates of parking reduce the private car driving habit? Yes? No ? 4. Is there certainty that a new and modern Car park would be constructed within the next 5 years? Yes? No ? 5. Does politics contribute to the idea of constructing a new Car Park in the Lyndhurst bypass? Yes? No ? Aims of the Qualitative Research The research endeavored to verify the following aims: 1. The parking system in the New Forest National Park serves all the cars adequately. 2. Constructing a new Car Park solves the problem of limited space in New Forest National Park. 3. Increasing parking charges shall ease the fight for parking spaces in the New Forest National Park. 4. The community around the National Park are assured or not if the Derbyshire county Council shall build a new Car park. 5. Politics has delayed the construction of a new Car Park in the New Forest National Park. Significance of the study to the Engineering and Construction Engineering and Construction is a professional discipline that deals with planning designing management and construction of infrastructure such as utilities (includes car parks and bus-based parks), buildings, dams, railways, bridges, airports and highways. The construction of the proposed new Car Park requires the services of a construction engineer. The new Car Park should incorporate the rising number of cars at the expense of public transport systems. The construction should also impose a limited disturbance to the natural environment in the National Park. However, such an activity requires the contribution of other personalities, local residents, business persons, visitors and other relevant authorities. A construct engineer has to convince such personalities about the benefits, resources and time requirements of the project. The outcome of this study shall provide an ideal information and insight for the Hampshire County Council, the Locals, the business community and motorists of Lyndhurst about the need to construct the a new Car Park in the National Park. The visitors and the community in Lyndhurst would benefit from the survey findings, thus may come up with remarkable suggestions aimed at improving the parking system in the New Forest national Park. The construction and engineering experts would apply the information retrieved from the research to come up with ideas that will minimize disturbances, interruptions and conflicts when carrying out the construction. The information may also help to identify the best methods of engaging the community of Lyndhurst to take part in the construction. This research shall also open up ways for validating the applicability of the forecasting model and the testing of its transferability. Theoretical Framework and Literature Review Background Information The Derbyshire County Council recommended the construction of a new car Park. However, the politicians gag the project citing that it would interfere with the wildlife. The Verderers bear colossal power to push for the proposal, but it is not an elected body. Additionally, the community does not have the power endowed on elected personnel. However, the locals have raised their concerns through various ways. For instance, they have attempted to lobby their local Member of Parliament, Dr. Lewis Julian, they have also made several contacts with the Derbyshire County Councilor via the council’s website, and they have signed petitions which push for project to construct a new car Park. The most viable intervention waiting in their list of actions is to vote for the like minded politicians in the next general election (theWWWsite, n.d.). Forecasting Model Forecasting models helps in predicting the future through a time series data analysis. It is usually driven by demand for manpower, products or services, forecast inventory and the need for materials. According to the time series methods of forecasting, predictions are made on the basis of past values of the relevant variables so as to determine the trend, cycles, seasonality and randomness. Literature Review According to Rodier et al (2008), well managed parking system fairly reduces trips while from the existing transit service. However, encouraging travel by bus significantly increases the number of visitors or travelers into a touring zone (Sinclair, 2007), improves fuel economy () and reduces carbon emission (Shoup, 2005). It is easier to cater for the parking space of a few buses than to cater for thousands of personal cars (Cambridge Systematics, 2005). These were the facts verified by the Perth Parking management area of Australia (Vaca & Kuzmyak, 2005). Following the introduction of parking fees, the commuters driving to work reduced from 66% to 58% while commuters via train increased from 6% to 18%. However, there was need to expand the parking space due to the rising number of new car owners. Methodology Research methodology and design To study the Transport Demand Management in this research, a computer-based survey was conducted in December 2013 among 200 motorists who had parked in the front of the business premises like shops, hotels, cafes, bars and banks among others. Only 21 motorists turned down the survey, citing that the Hampshire Council would not take any action. The research was approved by the University Projects Review Board. The survey was carried in the period between 1200 hours and 1900 hours. The survey targeted the motorists at their point of emotions and frustrations and it lasted for about two minutes only. According to Witt (1998), the computer-based survey collected all the statistics in to software without the need for an additional data entry. The data collection is also free of human error and has no limitations. Besides, the participants of the survey are enticed by the visual effect and compelling nature of the tablets (Cooper, 2000). Each driver was presented with a 3-line written piece of paper. The message in the paper persuaded the motorists to take part in the research. The writings read: The willing drivers were handed with a tablet. The tablets had been set such that the drivers were to click their choices from the first question to the last. The screen automatically scrolled to pave way for the next question after answering each of the questions. Instrument The computer-based motorists’ survey was conducted in order to ascertain their feelings about the construction of a new car Park. The program was both economical and easy to use. The computer-based questionnaire was entitled “The New Lyndhurst Car Park.” The name was preferred because it invoked the anxiety in the motorists. The five question instrument was designed to last for 60 seconds. The dependability of the instrument was verified in February 2013 during an organized survey. The survey presented 5 questions which were administered to 200 willing motorists who were at the traffic. In the test survey, all the responses were captured and stored. The data was not lost even after the tablets went out of power. The collected was the analyzed in the excel sheet. Data Analysis Of the 200 respondents, 76% believes that a new Car Park could solve the problem of inadequate parking space where as 24% believes that the perennial problem may only become worse, citing the increase of motorists each day. 78% of the respondents believe that increased parking rates would be helpful in reducing the problem of inadequate parking space while 22% do not buy the idea. 92% believe that the problem of inadequate parking space would be solved once and for all in a near future; only 8% denies that the strategy would work out. 31% of the respondents suppose that the new Car Park would be erected within the next 5 years, 69% can not imagine that the construction would take place within that period. 96% of the respondents blame poor politics for the poor parking system. Actually the 24% of the respondents who think that the problem of inadequate parking space is permanent can attest to the fact that the traffic congestion would not be entirely solvable because of the swelling tourist inflow during the summer, not because of the people passing by the New Forest to the neighboring towns. Otherwise, there are remedies that can help to reduce the problem. The same reason could be the factor behind the 22% who oppose the fact that constructing a new Car Park would solve the trouble. 92% of the respondents agree that increasing car Park charges eliminates the traffic. Besides, construction of a a new modern Car Park requires a heavy funding, thus the collected funds would facilitate the Car Park construction. Only 4% believe that politics has no influence over the traffic problems in Lyndhurst citing that the National Park should not be touched further for whatever reason. Limitations of the study The respondents of the research were limited to motorists only while transport issues concern almost everyone in the community. The research did not discriminate against the first time visitors of the New Forest National Park. Additionally, the software used was one-touch response model. This implies that they were no chance of correcting an accidentally tapped response. Recommendations to the future research The future research should be elaborate and a little comprehensive. The next research should explore the implications of building the bypass to the local community, business people and the report about the implications to the wildlife in the National Park. Summary The Derbyshire County Council suggested that the problem of inadequate Car Parking space can be reduced by putting up a new Car Park that runs through the land of the National Park forest. The user-surveys at New Forest National Park were successful, and that the information shall be helpful in validating the forecasting model and the testing of its transferability. References Black, C.S. (1997) Behavioural Dimensions of the Transport Sustainability Problem, PhD Thesis, University of Portsmouth, UK Black, C. and Schreffler, E. (2010) Understanding Transport Demand Management and Its Role in Delivery of Sustainable Urban Transport, Transportation Research Record, 2163, pp81-88 |url=http://trb.metapress.com/content/t2nv5w1hg7754lt1/?p=01cb9f4fe84a4f86bc133767c1c2f6f1&pi=9 Cambridge Systematics (2005). Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation, prepared for the Federal Highway Administration. Available online at:http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report/ COUNCIL FOR THE PROTECTION OF RURAL ENGLAND. (1988). Hampshire (Lyndhurst Bypass) Bill: Evidence submitted by CPRE witnesses to the House of Commons Select Committee. Council for the Protection of Rural England. Couper, M. P. (2000). Web surveys: A review of issues and approaches. Public Opinion Quarterly, 64, 464-494. FISCHER, A. (2009). Construction. Lausanne, AVA Academia. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10351569. Nelson, Donna C., Editor (2000). Intelligent Transportation Primer. Institute of Transportation Engineers, Washington, D.C. pp. 10-1 Rodier, C. J., S. A. Shaheen, and C, Kemmerer. (2008, June). Smart Parking Management Field Test: A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Parking Demonstration; Final Report: California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways Program, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California at Berkeley, UCB-ITS-PRR-2008-5 Shoup, D. (2005). The high cost of free parking. Chicago: American Planning Association. Snyder and Associates, (1999). 1999 Primary Roads Bypass Study of Selected Iowa Communities. Prepared for the Iowa Department of Transportation (November) TAKAMA, T., & PRESTON, J. (2008). Forecasting the effects of road user charge by stochastic agent-based modelling. Transportation Research Part A. 42, 738-749. the WWWsite, (n.d.). Lyndhurst’s Traffic Problems. http://www.thewwwsite.com/bypass/. Witt, K. J., (1998). Best practices in interviewing via the internet. Proceedings of Sawtooth Software Conference, Sawtooth Software, Inc., Sequim, Washington, 15-37 Vaca, E., and Kuzmyak, J. R. (2005). Chapter 13 - parking pricing and fees. In TCRP report 95: Traveler response to transportation system changes. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board. Read More