Significant changes are coming to how people travel in, out and around York.
Most residents would agree that city transport is far from optimal, from congestion-hit roads to disconnected cycle paths to patchy bus coverage.
The transport lead at City of York Council, Kate Ravilious, is drawing up a fresh approach to getting York moving.
A new transport strategy, which aims to cut car journeys in York by a fifth by 2030, has been agreed.
Now the question is – how will that be delivered? In the first of several articles on transport in York, we spoke to Cllr Ravilious about potential changes to car parking in York.
The council’s starting point is a “movement and place plan” she said, which is “about creating connected networks for every mode of travel, whether you’re on a bus, in a car, on a bike, walking.
“At the moment, we’ve got some very disconnected networks, particularly for walking and cycling, but also for buses.
“So that movement and place plan will be looking at the tools we have, such as traffic filters, whether you can have left turns and right turns at every junction – the literal physical layout of the city and the routes you can take.”
Routes would be altered so everyone “can still get everywhere using any mode of transport” but at the same time making sustainable travel “the obvious and easy option”.
While it will take some time to do all the analysis for the movement and place plan, Cllr Ravilious wants to make some more immediate changes – and one of those is around parking.
‘A massive issue’
She says parking “is a massive issue across the city. We’re inconsistent about where you can park, how long you can park, how much it costs to park. So – first job parking strategy.”
On-street parking may not always be the best use of highway space, she said. “It isn’t just a place to store cars. It can be a place where we have cycle storage.
“It can be a place where it’s best to have a bus lane. It can be a place where it’s best to have protected cycle infrastructure.
“It can be a place where residents sit out on the street and enjoy each other’s company.”
Meanwhile, “there are residential streets that you can park on for free, and there are the ones you can’t”.
She has already pledged to review the ResPark permit system for residents’ on-street parking, to make it fairer and more efficient.
All this would form part of the new parking strategy.
As for council-run car parks, “the situation we’re in at the moment is we have quite a complex charging system. We have different prices for different types of vehicle,” the council’s executive member for transport said.
“We have commuter passes. We have different prices for different car parks. If you park in Bishy Road I think it’s 80p an hour. If you park just around the corner in Nunnery Lane, it’s £2.40 [with a Minster Badge].”
So car park pricing needs to be looked at. And she has a bigger aim in mind.
“What we recognise is that it’s cheaper to drive in and park than it is to get the bus. And that doesn’t make sense,” Cllr Ravilious said.
“It’s no wonder that somebody doesn’t get the Park&Ride when it feels cheaper and more convenient to take the car.”
The aim is to change transport policies and costs so that driving into York city centre and parking there is “not the easiest option anymore”.
“How do we make the parking pricing consistent across the city, such that it feels cheaper and more convenient to use the bus or to cycle? But if you need to drive in and park because you’ve got to pick up a heavy load or you’re with somebody who’s disabled, then you can?”
She said there wouldn’t be overnight changes because she doesn’t want to create “negative knock-on impacts”.
“It’s also going to be working with the bus companies and saying, if we’re looking at altering our parking, we need you to step up and provide evening services and earlier morning services, so that people who are commuting to work have got a realistic option.”
At the moment there are barriers stopping people taking the bus and “we need to make sure that we remove those barriers as well as just alter the parking pricing.
“So it’s not about making everyone’s lives difficult, but it is just about nudging people and making the sustainable choice, the easy choice, the cheaper choice, the more convenient choice.”