Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/1905 on 28.02.2017 by CS (TIS)When pedestrianisation was introduced in Plymouth, in February 1987,,
there were two important physical changes to the city centre;
environment changes and accessibility changes. Environmentally, the
city centre was improved aesthetically and also in terms of safety for
pedestrians,, less congestion, and ease of movement within the traffic
free zone. The process of pedestrianisation initially reduced the
accessibility of the city centre, particularly for car users, because
the scheme removed nearly all the on-street parking meters together
with two small short stay car parks. This caused a temporary reduction
in car parking facilities, and the replacement facilities, completed
in late 1988, were located at longer walking distances from the shops.
Car users' access to the car parks and from the car parks to the shops
was therefore changed. Previous experience in other cities has shown
that accessibility to newly pedestrianised areas is of paramount
importance and in Plymouth this was particularly evident when car
users' accessibility problem became the most controversial aspect of
the scheme.
Conventional methods of appraising the success or otherwise of
pedestrianisation schemes have tended to concentrate on commercial
indicators such as trade turnover or on the acceptance of the scheme
measured by studying peoples'attitudes and opinions. This research
develops a conceptual and operational model that looks predominantly
at the behaviour of the city centre users and which focuses on the
particular problem experienced in the city, namely the changes in
accessibility for the car user. The methodology examines the car
users' travel, parking and shopping behaviour at three stages of the
city centre's development; before pedestrianisation was introduced,
during it s construction and after it s completion. The research was
therefore able to discover how people adapted their behaviour in
response to the changes in the city.
The research found that many car users adopted a more leisurely
approach to visiting the city centre, reflecting it s new image of a
recreational as well as a retail shopping centre. Attitudes towards
pedestrianisation also changed significantly during the survey period,
and were found to be strongly related to respondents' experiences and
perceptions of the parking facilities
