The hypothesis ‘as we get closer to the CBD we would expect the car parks to be fuller’ is inconclusive. This is because there were other factors affecting whether or not the car park was full. For example the short stay free car parks were the most popular and consequently nearly always full. This is because people did not have to pay to use them and they are handy to those who just want to quickly pop into the shops. We also found that some of the car parks were bigger than others and therefore are bound to not be as full.
Despite this in some cases we did find that the car parks near to the CBD were the most popular. For example the car parks found at Dalton Road and Hall Street proved popular and both were situated near the CBD.
The hypothesis ‘on the outskirts of the CBD we would expect to find more on-street parking’ is again inconclusive. This is because some of the on-street parking was situated in the CBD places such as Dalton Road and Scott Street had on street parking. However there was also on-street parking found on the outskirts in places such as Duke Street.
The hypothesis ‘as we approach the CBD we would expect to see the street quality and appearance improve’ is proven. This is because as we moved closer to the CBD the appearance of the streets improved as there was less rubbish, fewer vacant premises and more street furniture. The areas of highest street quality and appearance were Portland Walk and Dalton Road, which were situated in the CBD. These areas had the most litter bins as well as street cleaners, street furniture and high order shops. As we moved away from the CBD the street quality and appearance became poorer. Areas such as Buccleuch Street and Greengate Street had the poorest street quality and appearance. These areas were situated on the outskirts of the CBD and had the most litter and fewest safe road crossings.
The hypothesis ‘the high order shops are found in the CBD where as the low order shops are located out of the CBD’ is proven. This is because areas such as Portland Walk and Dalton Road, which are located in the CBD, had the highest number of high order shops. For example they had lots of comparison shops such as Littlewoods as well as magnet stores such as Debenhams. On the outskirts of the CBD we found low order shops. These were shops such as charity shops, which are always changing/moving on (dynamic).
The hypothesis ‘there should be less residential areas the closer you get to the CBD’ is proven. This is because we found that in the CBD there were no or very few residential areas. Portland Walk and Dalton Road had no residential dwellings. As we moved further away from the CBD the number of residential areas became greater. We found housing and flats situated on the outskirts of the CBD.
Finally the hypothesis ‘the closer we get to the CBD the taller the buildings should be’ was not proven. This was because in Barrow we found that the tallest buildings were actually on the outskirts. This is because Barrow, being on the peninsular, only has a threshold population of 100,000 therefore the demand for land is not as high as in most towns and therefore the land in general is significantly cheaper. This means that builders are not limited to small amounts of land and therefore can build outwards instead of upwards. This is not possible in typical MEDC CBD’s because land is usually in high demand and therefore very expensive, which results in restricted land and consequently buildings are much taller.
Before coming to my final conclusion I must take into account the fact that inaccuracy may have occurred somewhere in my coursework investigations. For example people may have counted the number of pedestrians and vehicles at different times. There is also the possibility that we may have counted the same vehicle/pedestrian more than once. This would obviously reduce the accuracy of the results. I also must take into account the fact I visited Barrow town centre on a weekday and therefore it will not have been at its busiest. The busiest time will obviously be on a Saturday afternoon when everyone is out shopping. Had I done my investigation on a Saturday my results may have been different.
Therefore after taking all this into consideration and looking at the entire hypothesise I think that the answer to the statement ‘does Barrow have a typical MEDC city CBD’ is yes. This is because most of the hypothesise we investigated were proven.
