Geographical theories:
- Population increase → more houses built → more vehicles per household.
- More vehicles per household → more traffic and congestion during rush hours → more roads built → more pollution.
- Population increase → more shops opening → higher profits
- More vehicles per household → less use of public transport → more pollution.
Key Questions:
- How does Canterbury control the main access / exit routes into the CBD?
- How do the traffic management strategies differ as we move further away from the CBC of Canterbury?
- What do the residents / visitors think of the traffic management in the CBD?
- What traffic management strategies have been used around the CBD of Canterbury?
- Are there sufficient car parking facilities around the CBD of Canterbury and what alternatives are available to the public?
- What will be the negative effects of the traffic and congestion?
- What are the causes of the congestion in the CBD of Canterbury?
- Who is affected by the congestion?
- What are the proposed improvements to the roads around the CBD of Canterbury?
What Secondary Data can I Collect?
The secondary data that I can use for this Canterbury project is the called “Unlocking the Gridlock”. The action plan focuses on what can be done to improve alternatives to using our cars for journeys, to and from Canterbury’s CBD and in particular, where traffic congestion is at it's worst during school, college and university term times. The areas that are the main focus of the plan is the A2 slip roads, better bus service with cheaper fares, more traffic calming, introducing a one way system in Wincheap in Canterbury, to have no more road building and more control on the developments that generate the traffic. There is going to be an increase in the amount of car parks in or around Canterbury’s CBD which offer the ‘Park and Ride’ facilities. I am also going to visit an area on the outskirts of Canterbury, take photographs and see what traffic management strategies are being used. I could write a letter to the Canterbury council asking them to tell me what there aims are for improving Canterbury’s CBD congested roads in the future and ways of eliminating traffic in the future.
Limitations:
There were some limitations that I had on the fieldwork day. These were that out of the working day, I only had 6 hours to collect the information that I required. Another limitation that I had on the fieldwork day was I only had the chance to collect data at two different times of the day. These weren’t the peak hours and this was a disadvantage to me because I was unable to collect a wide range of results and was restricted to only two different times. The fact that it was a weekday was also a limitation. This was a limitation because it’s not the busiest time to collect data. On the fieldwork day, the weather was unsettled so the number of people in the CBD of Canterbury at the data collection times would have reduced
METHODOLOGY:
I am now going to set out my sequence of investigation which enabled me to gather information relating to my project. This will also enable me to test my hypothesis. In addition, I asked residents and visitors of Canterbury in a survey several questions relating to my project title.
It was necessary to divide into groups in order to collect the data on the field trip day. It was necessary to divide Canterbury into six grids of equal size in order to maximise the amount of data collected and ensure that most of the city was covered so that it could be compared to urban geographical theories. This is because we needed to collect the data from 12 survey points. We split up into groups of 3 at different roads around the CBD of Canterbury so that we can collate the results to enable us to
have sufficient data to present. Also, dividing into groups made it easier to collect the data at the location point at the correct times. The times were: 11:30-11:35 and 1:30-1:35 for the traffic count, 11:40-11:45 and 1:40-1:45 for the pedestrian count and 11:50-11:55 and 1:50-1:55 for the congestion index. This would help us analyse whether Canterbury has peak congestion times where the demand for the services and facilities in the city increased. This was the case and there was an increase in the amount of people in the CBD of Canterbury during the data collection times. This was taking into consideration that our data collection times weren’t peak rush hour times. It was important that all the groups carried out the investigations at a certain times and at the exact same times. This also ensured that the widest possible range of results was collected and resulting in more comparisons. This ensured that the investigation was a fair test.
We were able to compare the geographical theories I mentioned in my introduction to what I found out. I found out that there was indeed more traffic and congestion at the times that I was collecting the data but we couldn’t prove that there was a further increase during rush hours because we weren’t in Canterbury during rush hours. As a result of this there was definitely an increase in pollution at the times we were collecting data because although the data collection times weren’t during rush hour, there seemed to be a large number of vehicles on the roads and a large number of people walking. Hence that there were large congestion index surveys and large pedestrian counts. At my data collection point it was clear that there was a lack of public transport which means there will be an increase in pollution because of the large amount of privately owned vehicles.
At each of the survey points, each group had to do a traffic count, pedestrian count, congestion index and how many cars and spaces there were in 2 car parks.
Within the groups, we had to fill out questionnaires. We had to first ask them if they were a resident or a visitor. It was difficult to get someone to answer the questionnaires because the times that we tried to fill out a questionnaire, a lot of people just said that they were busy. There was a debate as to whether they were actually in a hurry or they just simply didn’t want to answer the questionnaire in some cases. If they were a resident we asked them:
- How long they have lived in Canterbury for.
- Do they think Canterbury controls the traffic and congestion well?
- Do they think that Canterbury caters for tourists well?
- What are the problems caused by tourists?
- What do they think are the best bits about Canterbury?
- What do they think are the worst bits about Canterbury?
- What there occupation is.(if they have one)
We then estimated there age and stated whether they were Male or Female.
If they were a visitor to Canterbury we asked them:
- How long they are staying in Canterbury for.
- Do they think that Canterbury caters for tourists well?
- What they like about Canterbury.
- Do you think Canterbury controls the traffic and congestion well?
- How often do you visit Canterbury?
- How many times have you visited Canterbury?
- Are you likely to come back to Canterbury in the future?
We then estimated there age and stated whether they were Male or Female.
Collecting these questionnaires helped me to answer my hypothesis of: There will be more people walking at the survey points around the CBD and there will be less people walking if we were to collect data from roads on the outskirts of Canterbury. This is because the more people that we get a response from will indicate exactly how many people were around the area of the survey point.
Asking the question ‘Are you likely to come back to Canterbury in the future?’ Will say whether they are satisfied with Canterbury’s CBD and if they weren’t satisfied with the CBD, why is this? Asking the question ‘How many times have you visited Canterbury?’ will also show us what they think of Canterbury.
Asking these questions will help me to answer my project title because all the questions on the questionnaire all relate to the visitors / residents opinions.
From asking the question ‘What are the problems caused by tourists?’, will indicate what needs to be improved in Canterbury CBD to meet the satisfactions of the visitors / residents of Canterbury. This will give us an insight into whether they think that enough has been done to cater for tourists too.
I took photographs when I visited Canterbury and I have annotated them to indicate the traffic management strategies and the key factors to the photographs. Taking photographs will also help me to answer my project title because they all link in with ‘how has Canterbury Managed the Traffic Going Into and out of the CBD Compared to the Outskirts of Canterbury’. I have also annotated them to show the possible solutions to the congestion and traffic on the roads. They will show possible ‘danger zones’ for the pedestrians / other road users and I have annotated the photographs to show these and possible improvements to the road. It will help me to answer the key question of: What traffic management strategies have been used around the CBD of Canterbury?, by the use of the photographs. They will also prove that my hypothesis that Canterbury will concentrate on the types of traffic management strategies in the CBD of Canterbury more than the outskirts of Canterbury. I have been able to compare the annotated photographs taken in the CBD of Canterbury to the additional annotated photographs that I took of the area that I visited on the outskirts of Canterbury. This will help me to answer the key question of ‘how does the traffic management strategies differ as we move further away from the CBC of Canterbury? This will also help me to answer my prediction that the congestion index will be slower around the CBD than on the outskirts of Canterbury.
To collect the secondary data that I described in my introduction for this Canterbury project is the called “Unlocking the Gridlock”. I would research there website for the relevant information for my project and write a letter to the Canterbury council asking them to tell me what they plan on doing in the future to improve the roads around the CBD of Canterbury. This will give me two different accounts to what the proposed plans are for the CBD of Canterbury’s congestion and traffic problems. This will help me answer my key question of ‘What are the proposed improvements to the roads around the CBD of Canterbury? My letter will be asking exactly that question. It will help me to answer my hypothesis of ‘there will be much more traffic on the roads in the CBD and therefore more traffic management strategies than roads on the outskirts of Canterbury and more work is needed to improve the traffic management in the CBD of Canterbury. This will also help me to answer the section of my project title ‘How has Canterbury Managed the Traffic Going Into and out of the CBD?
Summary:
The data collected will help me to answer my hypothesis by proving to see if my thoughts on the project are correct and to have evidence that this is the case. The data collected will help me to answer my key questions by individually answering each of the questions with evidence. Most importantly it will help me to answer my project title questions in my conclusion to this project by treating them as key questions and also having evidence of my results to prove the answers.