MAIDSTONE INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT: PREDICTING THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORT AND TOWN CENTRE DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

The Maidstone Initiative for Sustainable Transport is a Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council and European Union funded project to demonstrate how environmental improvements can be achieved in congested town centres. A major part of this has involved the assessment of alternative public transport strategies, changes in town centre accessibility and the impact of improvements to the shopping environment. Stated preference surveys were used to establish the likely responses of drivers in the Maidstone area to different policies. Analysis of the data collected has indicated likely responses and these have been applied in an incremental model, using existing market shares, to establish aggregate changes to modal shares and Maidstone's share of the shopping market. Various improvements to buses, ranging from high-tech information facilities to simply providing conductors, are shown to result in widely different responses by car drivers. The results indicate that providing the four most favoured options could increase bus patronage by two-thirds. The impact of changes in accessibility has been assessed and the number of shoppers attracted to (and from) the town centre established. There are clear indications that in Kent, with many towns close together, shoppers are more likely to switch shopping destination than change mode. Similarly, the impacts of town centre improvements such as pedestrianisation and additional shops have been established. The paper summarises how the surveys were conducted, detail the results obtained and describe how the partners in the project are using the information to develop transport policies. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 877018.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Features: References;
  • Pagination: p. 215-28

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00722321
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
  • ISBN: 0-86050-282-1
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Jun 28 1996 12:00AM