Field Study-Kidderminster - change in Pedestrain numbers closer to the CBD

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Field Study-Kidderminster

Introduction

My investigation took place in Kidderminster. Kidderminster is a town in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately twenty miles southwest of Birmingham city centre and has a population of 55,182 in the town. Kidderminster is famous for carpet weaving, there are still large warehouses, many of which are disused and found in the city centre and on outskirts.

        

Map shows Kidderminster in relation to Birmingham. The highlighting shows the route we took to get to Kidderminster

The town centre area has undergone significant redevelopment in recent years, with the commercial retail area of Weaver’s Wharf, which has been redeveloped and now includes shops, restaurants and a college. It attracts many visitors and shoppers. Slingfield Mill, which has been remodelled into a retail area and incorporated into Weavers Wharf has created a large shopping area.

We have chosen Kidderminster to study for our project because it is fairly close to our school, and is small enough to surveyed in a day. Because Kidderminster is not part of the West Midlands conurbation it is therefore not subject to any of the other factors which could make our survey unreliable. These factors could be proximity to major shopping locations such as Merry Hill and Birmingham, which would affect the number of pedestrians found in the central business district (CBD) of Kidderminster.

Objectives for the study:

  1. The first is to observe the varying pedestrian numbers in Kidderminster. This is to see if the land use has any affect on the number of pedestrians.

  1. The second aim is to examine the different types of land uses in the CBD and the areas surrounding it. It is important to find out how land use changes in different parts of Kidderminster and why it changes.

Hypotheses:

Based on classwork and my knowledge of Kidderminster I expect the following;

  1. Closer to the core of the CBD there will be a higher pedestrian count, further out near the inner cities there will be a lower pedestrian count.

I am expecting to find that there are more pedestrians near the core of the CBD. I expect this because it has the most diverse shops and has large department stores. The shops supply comparison or high-order goods; this creates competition and competitive pricing or special offers. The wide range of shops, along with competitive pricing allures people to the CBD to buy products from the big department stores. There are also entertainment sectors in the CBD where clubs, theatres, restaurants and bars are situated. This attracts as vast number of customers. The fact that there is so much choice of products and entertainment services it is not a surprise that the CBD attracts a large number of people. He customers who shop in the CBD should create large pedestrian count for the CBD.

Further away, there are specialist shops, which also attract a large number of pedestrians, but not more than the multi-functional CBD. This would mean that the pedestrian count would drop as the land gets away from the core of the CBD.

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On the frame of the CBD will be smaller shops and car parks. I anticipate there to be fewer pedestrians around this area as there is less choice of shops and less functions than in the CBD.

Even further will be offices for solicitors, insurance companies etc. fewer pedestrians would be around here as there a no “everyday” services and there is not much leisure activity or shopping choice in the outer frame.

Finally, furthest away from the BD will be the inner cities. The houses will generally be terraced and there will be no shops, this area is ...

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