Croydon has equal access to services for all groups of people

Sonal Patel Geography Coursework 2

Unit 1: How are different services distributed in Croydon’s CBD?

Aim: To find out where Croydon’s CBD is.

To find out where different groups of services are located.

Introduction

A CBD (central business district) is a commercial business centre of a town or city. Its characteristics include large department stores and shopping complexes. Offices and high-rise buildings and amenities such as banks and public buildings including entertainment/theatrical complexes and civic and cultural amenities can be found.

The CBD is normally located where the main roads of a certain town meet in one place. In Croydon, the main roads are London Rd, Wellesley Rd, North End, Church Street and High Street. When these roads meet, the CBD is formed. It consists of the Whitgift Shopping Centre, the Drummond Shopping centre and other urbanised surrounding areas consisting of shops.

In each of the groups of categories situated in the CBD [retail, eating, finance, public buildings, entertainment and offices] I have collected numbers for each of the groups found in the CBD. Retail groups of services should include any type of shop, and eating amenities include cafes and pubs. Finance services include banks and building societies and public amenities include theatre and nightclubs. Offices are other places of work which are not listed as a category. The distribution of the services along the main routes were in some cases relevant to a certain job sector. For example, the services situated along Wellesley Road consisted of mainly offices and finance amenities and with a rare amount of eating and entertainment amenities.

Results

My results on my estimate of the location of the CBD and the actual CBD location do not differ greatly. The estimate of the area of the CBD was larger than the actual. In the actual area, I drew the location more precisely, and not colouring in roads which were not in the actual CBD. Also government offices needed to be included as part of the actual CBD.

My colour coded shading map showing groups of services locations verifies to me that the tracing overlay of the estimate/actual CBD is correct and all the relevant roads have been included.

Roads such as Keeley/Frith Road and Poplar Walk consist mainly of retail services and have a larger percentage of this. This could be because this area is close to the centre of the CBD. There are less retail services on Church Street and Dingwall Rd. These are quite suburban roads and rare passing commuters. Eating services wee found mainly on Dingwall Rd and North End because there were workplaces very close by, therefore it can benefit employees and North End is the main centre of the actual CBD. There were no eating services located on Keeley/Frith Rd as this area is very close to North End where several eating places already are. The most finance services were located on Church Street and in the places close the centre of the CBD. Workplaces and high-rising buildings are often found near financial services near the edge of the CBD. In this CBD, there were not many public buildings, where found they were on High Street and North End which are the CBD centre. Entertainment complexes were found mainly on Surrey Street and on Keeley/Frith Rd, I thought this would be so because these amenities are not often at the centre of the CBD and often in the surrounding areas as a large area may be required for parking etc. There were several offices and workplaces situated on Church Street and Wellesley Rd perhaps because these surround North End and the Whitgift Shopping Centre.

Conclusion

Croydon’s CBD is located around Wellesley Rd, Bedford Park and to the edge of Church Street and High Street. It also surrounds East and West Croydon station. The different groups of services are located along each of the given roads: Keeley Rd/Frith Rd, Church Street, Surrey Street, High Street, George Street, Dingwall Rd, Bedford Park, Wellesley Rd, North End and Poplar Walk. I have found out that Retail service were located mainly on Bedford Park and Keeley/Frith Rd. Eating amenities were found on Wellesley Rd and George Street mainly. Finance buildings were found mainly on Church Street. Public ...

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Conclusion

Evaluation

My fieldwork techniques need to be improved in some aspects. I did not finish all of the surveys and had to catch up on all of the work. I found that I did not know the CBD as well as I thought and this was a consequence for my group and me. I found that the traffic survey was quite easy but when we had to plan our route if we had a wheelchair was quite difficult.

Unit 2: How do people access these services?

Aim: To find out what options of transport are available to access the CBD?

To find out what is the most popular form of transport

To find out if access to all areas of the CBD is equal

Introduction

The CBD is the most accessible part of a city of its location. As in Croydon, the CBD is found in the centre of the city. The transport facilities are at large at the CBD and so are most of the amenities. Gradually a CBD shall change and become larger as the population and number of shoppers increases or the demand for certain types of shops increases.

The forms of public transport that are available in Croydon are bus, train, tram, taxis and also for pedestrians. Other transport vehicles that can be seen in the area are cars, motorbikes, bicycles and vans etc.

The questionnaire and tally charts show me that those who lived further away from the CBD, used public transport such as trains. Those who lived locally used their cars, walked and rarely buses. My tally chart results will show that cars are frequently seen in the CBD and so will be other modes of transport at areas where there are plenty of shops. There may be a large amount of pedestrians. The east end of George street may show that cars and other forms of transport were popular and also a small amount of buses. There will be plenty of pedestrians here than on place 1. The north end of Wellesley Rd will show that cars and buses are extremely popular, perhaps because this was there were a lot of offices and workplaces in which employees needed public transport to got to/from work. Also there is a main road – High Street therefore pedestrians could be rare. The junction of Poplar walk and North End may show that buses and cars are common and so may be pedestrians.

Fieldwork:

The fieldwork involved standing at the four places given (the North End of Wellesley Rd, the junction of Poplar Walk and North End, the junction of Surrey Street and Church Street), we stood there for five minutes and surveyed the types of transport seen entering the CBD at these places. We then organised them into a table with all of the transport types listed.

Results:

My proportional arrows map shows the major bus routes surrounding the CBD. My map shows me that the bus routes mainly circle around the edge of the CBD because the shops and services are closely together. Therefore the council have decided to pedestrianise this group of amenities and this means that buses and trams can only circle in and around the edges of the CBD itself.

I can see, from the map that the most bus routes are along Wellesley Rd and this may be because this part of CBD is quite industrialised and there are many businesses and office buildings. Also it is a main road linking to a station therefore there would have to be a considerable amount of public transport routes on this road. Employees require public transport to get to and from work so it is essential on this road. The larger roads on my map like London Rd and High Street have more bus routes. This could be because of the amount of traffic there is causing people to use buses and bus lanes to avoid he traffic. From my own knowledge and from looking at the map, I know that there are more routes to and from the North than from the South of Croydon. This could be because people in the South have better access to cars and require less use of public transport.

Conclusion:

There are many different types of public and private transport options available to access the CBD. Currently there is access by cars, buses, trains and by walking. In addition, recent developments have been in public/private transport access to the CBD such as a new tramlink and rickshaws which have been developed.

From my questionnaire, I can see that my results show that buses were the most popular form of transport. This was because it was very convenient, cheap and quick. Many people whom I asked thought it was cheap as bus fare is normally between (40p-70p). It was convenient and quick in that there are several buses that take you to the CBD and many bus stops, e.g. the 264 along the Mitcham Rd arrives every 10 minutes at the bus stop. The most accessible road by bus is Wellesley Rd because it is a main road and links to Croydon station with a one-way system.

Access to all areas of the CBD are not equal because it is not possible as the different groups of services are not all randomly located for there to be an equal amount of transport routes. Mainly, I think it depends on where you go but most areas are accessible, i.e. the north [the bus routes on the proportional arrows map shows this]. Many people mix the forms of transport options available to get to the CBD. This may be because they want to get as directly close as possible to the place they are going to and this can only be done this way. For example, to get from Purley Way to the CBD, you would have to take tram first and then take a bus.

Evaluation:

I asked ten people the questions on my questionnaire and I think that the results collected from it were not accurate enough because only ten people were asked and in the end I gained less data. To get better results I could have asked more people and on a variety of roads in the CBD. The questions I asked were also very basic and I thought there could have been more questions which in which we would have gained more data to work with.

The tally chart results we collected were fairly accurate but I was not aware that there are sometimes different types of transport at different times. For example, there are more pedestrians during the mid-afternoon than at any other time. We did the tally charts at only four places to count the transport types and it could have been more accurate if we had done more places as we would have gained more data and it would have made our statements more precise.

Unit 3 Is the access to the CBD equal for all groups of people?

Aim: To find out what groups of people access the CBD

To find out how two groups of pedestrians access the CBD

Introduction:

The different groups of people who access the CBD are able-bodied people, less able-bodied people and those with pushchairs. The different needs for these groups of people are perhaps ramps, zebra crossings and curbs which slope. They may also need car parking for those with babies. We have chosen these groups of pedestrians because we feel that there is a good comparison between the two [disabled and people with pushchairs]. Also it would enable us to find out the facilities available for them to get around the CBD and the public transport.

The test routes we chose were chosen from Wellesley Rd because this area was very busy and had several public transport facilities and I felt that a less able person would not find it very easy to travel on this road. The second test route was around West Croydon bus station as we were familiar with the area and as it was a bus station, it is very likely to be used by less able-bodied people if they cannot get private transport.

Fieldwork:

My first sketch map shows the route from George Street to the end of Wellesley Rd. My second sketch map shows the route from around Tamworth Rd to Wellesley Rd. The routes chosen were very close and have many similarities.

The similarities between the two routes are that there are tramlines and a tram stop running through the routes and there are several bus stops. These two routes surround the edge of the CBD and can immediately tell me of problems there could be for disabled/those with pushchairs.

The differences between the two routes are that Wellesley Rd has several pedestrian crossings whereas Tamworth/Wellesley Rd has none. This could be a problem for the group of pedestrians that I have chosen and it will be a difficulty for them to get around. Route 2 is closer to the CBD than route 1 is.

Conclusion:

Able-bodied people, less able bodied and those with pushchairs use Croydon’s CBD. Those with wheelchairs/pushchairs will take advantage of ramps and zebra crossings. Those with pushchairs may also require a parking space close to the CBD, as they will have very young children. People with wheelchairs may require specialist parking if they own a car and may also require a lift to travel to different storeys of a buildings. Both these groups will require a spacious sidewalk which is available as part of the CBD is pedestrianised.

These two groups of pedestrians will access the CBD in different ways. Some bus and tram services are sympathetic towards disabled people with wheelchairs. There are numerous pedestrian crossings if the group of pedestrians choose to walk to the CBD.

Evaluation:

In my opinion, the test routes I chose were very close together and very similar. They could be improved if I had chosen routes which differed in a lot of ways and were not very close by. My fieldwork techniques could be improved; I did not complete the test route exercise and had to complete it later as there was not enough time.

Unit 4 Consideration of the hypothesis

The hypothesis I have been given questions me whether access to the CBD is equal for different groups of people. This includes less able-bodied people and able-bodied people such as people with wheelchairs and with pushchairs. My fieldwork was to collect relevant data to decide whether access to the services and around the CBD are equal for less able-bodied people.

Throughout all of the units I covered, I found that the hypothesis was relevant in each case. Unit 1 informed me that access around the CBD is different as some of the services are grouped together and distributed differently across the area. Unit 2 helped me to discover how different groups of people access the services in the CBD. Unit 3 helped me to decide whether access is equal to the CBD and to use test routes collected during our fieldwork to do this.

My results agree fairly well with the hypothesis because I did the fieldwork quite accurately. My bar graphs showed what I had originally expected and my proportional arrows map showed me that there would be more bus routes on larger main roads as I had predicted. I agree with many of the sources of data because they relate well to the hypothesis. This is because the units we were given helped us to discuss the hypothesis in each of our answers.

The hypothesis, from my own knowledge is quite significant. Access to the CBD and around it is fairly equal but in my opinion can never be made equal enough for the changing needs of people today. Over the last five years, new elevators have been fitted around the CBD and pavement space has increased in some areas. Newer shops are being fitted with lifts and there are disabled and baby changing toilets and other facilities available. The hypothesis chosen is quite relevant to the CBD as this is an important consideration for town planners.

The public transport such as bus services are constantly improving and providing for people with wheelchairs/pushchairs. The new tramlink service has wider tram doors for disabled and people with pushchairs. The pedestrianised area in front of most of the services also provides for less able-bodied people by providing sloping curves and a wide area. There are also subways which provide ramps.

The access to Croydon’s services could be improved in that there could be larger parking spaces for less able-bodied people. Croydon council could also introduce more cycle lanes and buses and bus lanes. The tramlink currently running could also stop at more places. There could even be a bigger one-way system. Recently there has also been an introduction into the use of rickshaws.

Other fieldwork that can be done to investigate the hypothesis further is to perhaps look at the places at which the buses and trams stop and then consider whether these transport services could be improved to stretch over a wider geographical area. We could also stand at the end of every road in the CBD and count how many there are of each transport type and this would even be more reliable. We could also ask more specific questions which would enable us to get more data.