to think this is really short sighted re Park and Ride

[coolcookie]

So I really love our Park and Ride. I use it to take my dd to her hospital appointments and to go shopping in the local Town. It represented really good value at £2 for me and any accompanied dc. (Between 1 and 3dc )

However, they are now charging per person so it will now cost nearly £7 with all dc. Cue less people using it. Buses operating empty bar senior citizens outside rush hours and clogged up Town Centre Car parks or worse people judt giving the Town Centre a miss completely.

Aibu to think this is short sighted.

I guess they found that £2 for a whole family wasn't covering their operating costs. If that is for a whole days parking then it still isn't that bad a price really

I know, OP. They are making a big song & dance about the introduction of P&R in our city later this year and the car park is ideally suited from where I live.

However, it will cost 3 pp on the bus, for quite a short journey and the parking isn't too bad in our city - you can usually get a space in the car parks on the edge of town and pay 3 for 2/3 hours parking. So I will probably never use it, because it won't save any money and just take longer faffing around with the buses.

But then again, I can see that it will be good for commuters, as a days parking is much more expensive, so they will save money. May also make the city less congested and have more spaces for shoppers/hospital visits - can you park near the hospital for less than 7 OP?

Well today it cost me £2.00 to park at the hospital but you can't always get spaces in the cheaper car park. Although even the more expensive one would still be cheaper than the park and ride with kids in tow.
Town centre shops just missed out on a visit as I was going to go into town afterwards.

It's just such a large price hike for families though. They don't even do the price per car ticket anymore which was cheaper than paying per person.

I guess it's worth dropping the local Council (or whoever runs it) a polite note, saying you thought they might be interested to know, you used to use the P and R x times per month, and now you don't, and this is why. And cc your MP.

Our council did something similar.

They used to charge £5 for a full days parking, bus was then free.

They've changed it and it's now free to park but charge normal bus fares into town - which is £3.50 per adult, £1.75 per child each way (they don't do returns).

So, for me, DH and 2 kids it's over £20 just to go into town and back, why would I do that when I can drive in and park for a fraction of that? Even a taxi is cheaper

It's so shortsighted, the P&R is now pretty much empty all the time

The spent a fortune on one near us and did the same now it is only open in December.

Our local bus runs with only bus pass holders most of the time. Its a couple of miles home up hill, so often walk into town and bus back. However, at 1.70 each, its cheaper for 3 of us to get a taxi!