THarris123
Established Member
Turning to Park & Rides, My idea is for Bristol to have 6 Park & Rides (3 Current, 1 Under Construction and 2 New)
These would be at:
Portway
Ashton
Brislington
Whitchurch
Lyde Green
Patchway
I don't think there should be Park & Rides at Portbury, Henbury, Hambrook, Yate, Warmley, Willsbridge or Felton.
Now to explain reasons for each location.
Portway: This was the 3rd and last site to date, built in Bristol, it is the least used site, having fewer parking spaces than the rest, but still gets a 12 min double decker service. And at First is an odd choice for a site as the population of Avonmouth is quite small, but it serves a much bigger market. Firstly people using the M4 West (South Wales), can be directed onto the M49 to use this site, it could be a secondary site for people travelling down the M5 North, it can be used for people travelling up the M5 South, it is also in a good location to get traffic from Clevedon and Portishead and Severn Beach, In my eyes it along with Patchway removes the need for a A4018 (Henbury) site, which has been proposed, as it would draw away too much business, also I see it removes the need for a Portbury (A369) site, plus when the rail line to Portishead opens, this site could become a white elephant.
Ashton: This site is the 2nd site in Bristol, it is well used and captures people living along the A370, mainly from Weston and Nailsea, but also smaller villages around, it can also be used as a site if travelling from the M5 South, although in practice Portway may provide a better option. Also now the South Bristol Link road has been built it has further removed the need for a A38 South site (Felton), as Long Ashton is much more accessible. Plus there are no major population centres in this area, and it could pull traffic away from the Airport Flyer. Also with the New airport flyer the Ashton site could be used for people travelling to/from Bristol Airport.
Brislington: As said there is already a site at this location, being the original site built in Bristol, it is very well used and is often full, so hopefully building a Whitchurch Park & Ride would relive traffic from here very slightly. It captures people from Bath and the surrounding areas. It also means there is no need for a site at Willsbridge.
Whitchurch: Now this is probably the hardest to explain, but here goes! I would build a park & ride on the A37 just on the outskirts of Whitchurch. I do believe there is demand, as people have pointed out busses to Chew Valley and Shepton Mallet might not be the most viable, but there most be another way to catch these people, so a park & ride in my eyes is the next most logical step. How ever much I would like to see the ringroad properly extended around the outside of South Bristol, this won't happen any time soon, and if it were built arguably you could say these people could use the Brislington site, but that is already very big and gets full, so really that is not a piratical option either! So an A37 site, aiming at East Somerset traffic, Chew Valley and Shepton Mallet traffic would hopefully work.
Lyde Green: As part of Metrobus there is a small park & ride being built here and is served by the X48 (Or it's metrobus replacement). I would support the building of a M4 Junction 18A at Lyde Green, with a road connecting it to the A4174 ring road and the B4465 westerleigh road. This site would then be useful for people travelling from Yate/A432/B4465 (Removing the need for a P&R there), also it would catch Bristol bound traffic from the Thames Valley (M4 East) area before it reached the M32 (Partially removing the need for a P&R at Hambrook), also catching traffic that would use a Warmley site, removing the need there.
Patchway: Personally I would like to see a Park & Ride built at Patchway, ideally on part of the former Rolls Royce site, of course this is currently being redeveloped but with "Low density, non residential development" which would make building a site there at a later date easier. A park & ride here, would catch traffic from the new Filton airfield housing development, it could be used as a secondary site for people travelling from Yate, it could catch traffic travelling down the A38 North from Gloucester/Thornbury. It could also catch people travelling down the M5 North towards Bristol, as the site would be reached sooner than the Portway site (which is the current recommended site). Also finally catch people coming from Magor, Caldicot and Chepstow via the M48. It would also stop them travelling along the M4 to reach the M32, as they would reach this site first of all. This should totally remove the need for an M32 site near Hambrook, as ALL M32 traffic could be caught beforehand.
Hopefully that explains why I think 6 sites would work, and would cover all the main arteries into Bristol. Yes there is the question of if sites would be quicker, into the centre but I am sure that could be worked on.
Where will the money come from to build the other 2 (i.e. the one at Patchway and Whitchurch)? Admittedly a Park and Ride at Whitchurch would be very beneficial, but it would have an impact on the loadings on 376 and also have an impact on the number of people that use Brislington Park and Ride (as quite a few from Chew Valley, etc use Brislington at the moment). Patchway might actually work, but both will cost a lot of money to bring in. Perhaps the Metrobus money should have been used this way.