A study of sustainable transport strategies used in York.
Hypothesis
The sustainable transport strategy in York is effective.
Geographical theory
Different sustainable transport strategies can be used to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in urban areas.. Using Park & Ride helps cut congestion by keeping more cars out of the city centre. Congestion restricts business and has a severe cost to the economy. Reducing congestion means faster journey times for everyone and improved air quality. Fewer vehicles on the road also improves the ambience of the city and our quality of life. Pedestrianisation creates a safer and more attractive city centre and reduces inner city pollution and congestion.
Where we went and why
We completed our human enquiry in the city of York for several reasons: · Local to school (36km—45 mins drive) which means that it was low cost, accessible to all within a school day and it was free of charge to visit. · The city is familiar with staff (safety) and much of the study area is pedestrianized (with few road crossings), · There was a clear link between the rivers topic of the course and how humans try to manage this · There are a range of transport strategies (e.g. pedestrianisation and park and ride) in a small area, allowing us to collect the data that we need within a short time period. When deciding on a location for fieldwork, various factors need to be
How did we manage the risks?
· When crossing roads we only crossed at pedestrian crossings and stayed in small groups · Teachers monitored weather conditions and we were advised to dress accordingly · We kept mobile phones and valuables safe in our bag.
To improve the accuracy of our results we could have carried out pedestrian counts at different points throughout the day on both weekdays and weekends and then calculated an average of our results.
Primary data collection
The students were split into groups of 3 and allocated one of 25 survey locations in the central area of York (all survey locations are within 10 minutes walk of the city centre). The survey locations are evenly spread across the survey area (systematic sampling)
Traffic Count We undertook 2 traffic counts at our survey location (1st at 10:40, 2nd at 11.20). Each count should last for 5 minutes. We only count vehicles that are driving into York (ignore vehicles driving out of York) and used the tally chart to record each different type of vehicle that passes to avoid losing count.
Pedestrian Count We carried out two pedestrian counts, the first count at 10:30, then repeat at 11.10. each count lasted 5 minutes. We counted pedestrians going past in both directions on our side of the road, recording it in a tally.
I have chosen this method because it will allow me to see if pedestrianised areas have a higher number of people walking than non-pedestrianised areas, allowing me to see whether pedestrianisation has been effective in encouraging more people to use more sustainable methods of transport such as walking.
Data Presentation
I presented our pedestrian counts as a pictograph. I used a key with one person symbol representing 10 pedestrians counted. The pedestrianised street count was 78 pedestrians (7 whole symbols to represent the 70 and 80% of a symbol to represent the 8). This worked well as it gave a good visual representation of the different number of pedestrians in the pedestrianised and non pedestrianised areas. However, it was difficult to draw 80% of a person symbol accurately and it was hard to read the pictogram accurately where part symbols were used. The average that I calculated for the 2 pedestrian counts had to be rounded up or down to a whole number to make the pictogram easier to draw. This will have affected the accuracy of my results. The results will appear lower than they should if the number was rounded down and higher than they should if they were rounded up.
A scatter graph was used to identify if there was a correlation between number of vehicles and pedestrians, the independent variable being cars being on the Y axis and the dependent on the X (ignore our graph, on reflection it was the wrong way around). This was a good method for clearly seeing relationships and identifying any anomalies. It allowed me to add a best fit line which visually represented the negative correlation as well as making being able to see if the data clustered or was spread out.
Conclusions
I was able to conclude that York’s transport strategy is effective. &1% of the people questioned used a sustainable form of travel with only 29% taking the car. 58% had used the park and ride scheme saying that it is cheap and convenient. However the 42% had not used park and ride and of those 29% said it was not convenient. Based on this data I could not conclude York’s transport strategy to be fully effective. The results for my pedestrian counts did let me conclude that the pedestrianised zones were effective. This was further confirmed by the fact that as traffic levels increased so pedestrian numbers decreased. People are choosing not to be in the polluted areas.
Issues & how to improve the enquiry
Pedestrian Count - Issues and Solutions The flow rate was fast on many of the pedestrianised streets, meaning that pedestrians may have been missed as there were so many people to count and it was difficult to count people going in both directions.
If pedestrians were missed our pedestrian count results will appear lower than they should have been.
Although our results may not be fully accurate, they were accurate enough to suggest that Footsteps, York’s pedestrianised area, has been effective in encouraging people to walk. This supports our hypothesis that York’s sustainable transport strategy is effective.
The method could be improved by working in pairs, with one person counting the pedestrians and a second person recording on the tally chart. This would mean that the person counting would not have to look down at the tally chart and would be less likely to miss pedestrians from the count.
The accuracy of our pedestrian count results are limited by the fact that we carried out the pedestrian counts at 10.30 and 11.10 am on a weekday.
This could cause our pedestrian count results may be lower than they should be. For example, if we had carried out the count during “rush hour” (8am to 9am or 5pm to 6pm) when people are travelling to and from work then our results would likely have been higher.
Although our results may not be fully accurate, they were accurate enough to suggest that Footsteps, York’s pedestrianised area, has been effective in encouraging people to walk. This supports our hypothesis that York’s sustainable transport strategy is effective.
Traffic Count: Issues and Solutions Missed traffic: The flow of traffic was fast on some of the main roads, meaning that vehicles may have been missed as there were so many vehicles to count and it was difficult to count and categorise them quickly enough.
This could lead to inaccurate results, however we could still be confident in our conclusion as our questionnaires supported our findings with 71% of those questioned using sustainable transport, this supports our hypothesis that York’s sustainable transport strategy is effective.
The method could be improved by giving individuals within the group a particular form of transport to count. For example, one person could do cars, another buses and the third bikes.
The accuracy of our traffic count results are limited by the fact that we carried out the pedestrian counts at 10.40 and 11.20am on a weekday.
This could cause our traffic count results may be lower than they should be. For example, if we had carried out the count during “rush hour” (8am to 9am or 5pm to 6pm) when people are travelling to and from work then our results would likely have been higher.
Although our results may not be fully accurate, they were accurate enough to suggest that Footsteps, York’s pedestrianised area, has been effective in encouraging people to walk. This supports our hypothesis that York’s sustainable transport strategy is effective.