I live in the outskirts of one of the largest towns in Scotland. 24yrs ago there were 2 buses to the nearest city in the morning, & in the evening, 2 buses back. There were 4 buses/ hr to the town centre. The area around my home have now expanded, but there are no buses to the city anymore. The local circular bus service is two an hour, first bus leaving the town centre at 7.15am Monday - Fri; 9am Sat & Sun. The last bus leaves the town centre at 5.20pm; at weekends it’s 5pm. This is a vast improvement as a few months ago there was only 1 bus/ hr with drivers taking a 1hr lunch break & the last bus was 4pm from the town centre, with no service on Sundays.
Houses in my scheme (1994) all have a single driveway. We are lucky that we have converted our front garden to hold 3 cars. There are 2 parking bays available for visitors serving 50 houses. People park their cars on the mini roundabout outside our house. Depending on the car lengths & how people park, it is possible to fit 5 cars! Most households here have at least 2 cars. We have 3 to share between my family of 5. Some of my neighbours do park on the road/ pavement.
Properties in the newer schemes have a driveway for one or two cars, with minimal front garden (cannot be converted to park one car). Some of these 4/ 5 bedroom houses cost upwards of £400k. Some streets don’t have a pavement; just a grass verge. People there do park on the pavement as there’s no alternative. If they park on the road, another car can just about squeeze past. I do not understand why the councils allowed these properties to be built with minimal parking on narrow roads, knowing the lack of public transport (& other infrastructure eg lack of schools/ GPs etc).
In the winter, the gritters (which do occasionally come round) have trouble accessing parts of the area, especially as some schemes are up/ down a hill, so lots of households park their cars on the main road, where it’s flat. Pavements are gritted (on one side), but it’s actually safer to walk on the roads than the pavements.
My mother is in a wheelchair, so I do understand the concerns of pedestrian safety. Where she lives, the pavements are wide enough so cars can park half on the pavement, & a double buggy can still get past. She is also lucky as she lives 5min from a main road that has lots of buses serving the area.
My issue is the lack of public transport in some areas; lots of (new) homes; narrow streets; narrow or non-existent pavements; no/ small driveways; insufficient parking spaces for 3/4/5 bedroom homes. Adult children are living at home for longer as they cannot afford to move out. Builders, road planners & councils know that. One way they’re going to encourage households to give up on cars is to improve public transport (connections & prices). I care for my mother. It is 3 buses to visit her (2 hr journey & that’s excluding waiting for buses & being stuck in traffic, so that is minimum 4hrs on public transport, & £18 return). It only takes me 40min to drive to her house (25miles) & I do this several times a week as she has dementia & cancer so ongoing treatment at hospital.