I have chosen these specific aims because I feel that if I collect the right amount of information I will be able to develop my ideas more fully. Manchester is also more accessible to collect data, and offers a large sample size. I chose the first aim because I believe there will be a difference of locations between shoppers and workers, so I hope to categorically find two separate conclusions to back up my claims. I chose the second aim because I believe that the sphere of influence might be larger than most people believe, and that it affects most of Lancashire and the North-West of England. I chose the because I believe people use different modes of transport to enter Manchester depending on what their purpose is.
Q1) Where do people live who visit Manchester’s CBD?
Data Collection
The main way we collected our data to discover where people lived was to carry out a questionnaire in St Anns Square. We carried out a pilot study so we could see if we would encounter any difficulties, so they could be corrected before we carried out the proper fieldwork. We asked random members of the public specific questions about their age, their postcode, their purpose for being in Manchester, how they travelled into the Manchester and other related questions. See figure 4 for a sample of the questionnaire. I carried out 100 questionnaires within St Anns Square because that specific number was large enough for reliable results. I also carried out my own individual data collection by carrying out my own questionnaire (figure 5) in my own local CBD of Bolton. I only carried out 30 individual questionnaires because I was working by myself.
Data Presentation
With the data I collected from the questionnaires I was able to attain the postcodes of the people we surveyed. I then put the results into two separate tables, one for workers (figure 6) and one for shoppers (figure 7). I also able to produce a map showing the postcodes for workers (figure8) and shoppers (figure 9). With my own individual data on Bolton I created a tables for workers (figure 10) and shoppers (figure11), and created maps for their postcodes (figures 12 and 13)
Data Analysis
With the data presented I was able to clearly assess the areas where people came from who visited the CBD of Manchester with shoppers there seems to be a far more overall spread to the results, where the people come from a wide range of places mainly due to the time factor that they have on the other hand, with the workers the data spread is more concentrated to the southern areas mainly due to distance being a far greater factor for workers because of their time scale. In the Bolton area the spread is mainly confined to Bolton, but there are a few exceptions with people coming from slightly north or south of the border.
Conclusion
In the map showing only workers (figure 8) we can clearly see that their seems to be a boundary of exclusion, where mainly all the workers come from the south of Greater Manchester, and only a small proportion of the workers coming from the north. I think this is due to the greater variety of transport coming from the south into Manchester, during the rush hour in the morning whereas the north only has a limited amount of options at the same time period. It goes as far south as Glossop, and as north as Ramsbottom. With the shoppers map (figure 9) we can see that there is a more all round spread to the amount of people within the conurbation. This is because most shoppers will travel in the late morning when there’s less congestion, so places like the north of Greater Manchester with its limited transport doesn’t suffer. There are people from Blackpool to Whaley Bridge. With the information collected with my own individual data it was possible to see that with workers there was a large influx of people from Chorley and Egerton in the north and to the south it was possible to see people coming from Bury and Farnworth.
Q2) What is the sphere of influence of Manchester’s CBD?
Data Collection
The main way we collected our data to discover the sphere of influence was to carry out a questionnaire in St Anns Square. We carried out a pilot study so we could see if we would encounter any difficulties, so they could be corrected before we carried out the proper fieldwork. We asked random members of the public specific questions about their age, their postcode, their purpose for being in Manchester, how they travelled into the Manchester and other related questions. See figure 4 for a sample of the questionnaire. I carried out 100 questionnaires within St Anns Square because that specific number was large enough for reliable results. I also carried out my own individual data collection by carrying out my own questionnaire (figure 5) in my own local CBD of Bolton. I only carried out 30 individual questionnaires because I was working by myself.
Data Presentation
With the data I collected from the questionnaires I was able to attain the postcodes of the people we surveyed. I then put the results into two separate tables, one for workers (figure 6) and one for shoppers (figure 7). I also able to produce a map showing the postcodes for workers (figure8) and shoppers (figure 9). With my own individual data on Bolton I created a tables for workers (figure 10) and shoppers (figure11), and created maps for their postcodes (figures 12 and 13). With these important graphs I was able to produce two sphere of influence maps for Manchester (figure 14) and for Bolton (figure 15)
Data Analysis
With the sphere of influence we can clearly see that for both Bolton and Manchester their respective pulls are larger than people would believe. This could be because due to the introduction of the Middlebrook Retail Park in Bolton, and the Trafford Centre in Manchester, people are more prepared to travel long distances to purchase high order goods, compared to low order goods.
Conclusion
Using the Sphere of Influence Map (figure 14) I was able to discover that Manchester does have a large sphere of influence. It can be seen going as far southwest as Liverpool, as east as Huddersfield, and as north as Blackpool. This is mainly due to the fact that Manchester being the most affluent settlement in northern England, attracts many people to come there to work and to spend their money. It is a manufacturing city that attracts people from all cultural backgrounds. With the data I collected from Bolton I could see that its sphere of influence of the CBD (figure 15) and it showed that the sphere of influence of the town spreads as widely as in the east to Bury and Rochdale, in the south to Farnworth and Swinton, in the west to Wigan and Westhoughton and north to Belmont and Blackrod.
Q3) What are the different modes of transport used for people entering the CBDs of Bolton and Manchester?
Data Collection
The main way we collected our data to discover the sphere of influence was to carry out a questionnaire in St Anns Square. We carried out a pilot study so we could see if we would encounter any difficulties, so they could be corrected before we carried out the proper fieldwork. We asked random members of the public specific questions about their age, their postcode, their purpose for being in Manchester, how they travelled into the Manchester and other related questions. See figure 4 for a sample of the questionnaire. I carried out 100 questionnaires within St Anns Square because that specific number was large enough for reliable results. I also carried out my own individual data collection by carrying out my own questionnaire (figure 5) in my own local CBD of Bolton. I only carried out 30 individual questionnaires because I was working by myself.
Data Presentation
With the data we collected from the questionnaire (figure 4) we were able to collate how people travelled into Manchester onto a table (figure 16). With this table produced I used the information I had collected for my individual research on Bolton I also produced a table showing the different modes of transport people used to enter Bolton’s CBD (figure 17). With both these two tables I created was able to plot a graph for Manchester (figure 18) and for Bolton (figure 19), which shows the data in a simpler form.
Data Analysis
With the
Conclusion
With the transport graph of Manchester (figure18) we can see that the most common way of people entering Manchester is by coming by train. This is mainly due to the fact that train is the easiest and most accessible way of entering for people who travel long distances to visit the CBD. There is a great difficulty in travelling long distances by road, but travelling by rail is cheaper and more convenient. Another factor is the sphere of influence. In the Bolton transport graph (figure19) we can see that the most popular way of travelling to Bolton is by car. This is mainly due Bolton’s relatively small compared to Manchester so many people live quite near to their workplace or shopping area. Going by train to Bolton if you lived so close would be nuisance and not a benefit as it is in Manchester.
Limitations
In our investigation there were a number of limitations, which hindered our progress. We found that when we were conducting our investigation it was difficult for us to ask people our questionnaire, they were reluctant to stop and it was hard to get them to answer our questions. Some of the questions were open questions and some members of the general public also found it difficult to answer the questions. Another limitation was the weather it wasn’t a very good day, it was over cast, cold and drizzly so some people wouldn’t have decided to go to the CBD on that day, and they could have been important to the investigation.
Improvements
The main way I thought we could have improved my project was if we had had a full day to collect the data. If we had more time to collect data a lot of the errors experienced would have not occurred. If we had carried out more questionnaires in Manchester we could have had a better range of results, and not as many anomalies. With my own personal data if I had have done at least double the amount I originally did my results would be even, more reliable.
Overall Summary
To sum up the project I think Manchester is a large bustling city, which houses a wide variety of activities. The main two of these activities are shopping and working. Manchester accommodates both of these and with its large sphere of influence it not only attracts people from Manchester itself but also people from nearby towns and villages. Most of these people will travel by train. In comparison Bolton has a smaller population and so doesn’t carry out as many activities. Its sphere of influence is only a small regional one so due to the sphere of influence being small and people living nearby mostly come in by car.