I am going to attempt to find out if there is a shopping hierarchy in North West London. I will look at four shopping areas which I consider to be important shopping centres.

To do this I counted all the pedestrians that passed a fixed point for 15min to make this a fair test I did my count at the same time each day.

I performed my count in the following places:

• Area outside the lifts from the main car park in Brent Cross
• The Broadwalk main entrance.
• The bus stop in Pennine drive
• Outside McDonalds on Finchley Road (Golders Green)

I kept a tally chart to record the number of people who passed me in both directions.

The Traffic Flow Survey

Traffic is an important factor for a shopping centre because traffic is potential customers.

I recorded the number of cars, taxis, bikes, vans and buses that passed me in a 10-minute period. Due to the sheer volume of traffic in some areas two people were required to count – one person counted each direction.

A count was done for 10 minutes at the same time in the following areas.

• Brent Cross Buss garage.
• Edgware bus garage
• The bus stop at Pennine Drive
• Outside McDonalds on the Finchley Road.

We kept a tally chart to record the number of vehicles to pass. Afterward we added the results together to produce a chart.

Parking

My hypothesis says that I will collect information on parking facilities. To find out if this was true I went to my areas and collected data on the number of available spaces.

Environmental quality survey

The environment is a major factor in shopping centres. To find out about the environment in my areas I did an environmental survey of the area. I looked at Graffiti, Litter, Natural Features (trees etc), Transport and Accessibility to shops. I gave each heading a mark out of 5 (with 1 being the Excellent and 5 being poor).

These results will only give my opinion of the areas so I will collect photos to show why I gave the rating which I did.

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Environmental Quality Survey

Smell

What was the general atmosphere was like, did it smell of smoke, fumes or flowers.

Sound

Did the noise of the traffic or other features annoy you.

Chewing gum

How much chewing gum do you see on the floor, on walls etc.

Bins

How regular were the bins.

Cigarettes

Do people leave cigarettes lying on the floor or are special bins provided.

Clean Area

Is rubbish left lying on the floor, is there graffiti on the walls.

Benches

Whether there are enough places to sit, at bus stops for example.

Collecting Priary Data

To collect my primary data I went to each of the areas and asked 15 people to fill in a questionnaire. The questions were multiple choice because this makes it east to make into charts and tables to analyse it.

The Questionnaire

How often do you come here?

                        Every Day

                        Once a week

                        Twice a week

                        Once a month

How far do you travel to get here?

                        Less than half a mile

                        Half to One mile

                        One to Two miles

                        More than 2 miles

                

What form of transport do you use to get here?

                        Car

                        Bus

                        Walk

                        Taxi

                        Train

Do you ever come here just to look?

                        Yes

                        No

Why do you come here?

                        Shopping

                        For food (restaurants etc)

                        Work/Business

                        Leisure

                        Other

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Questionnaire Results
Pennine Drive

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Questionnaire Results
Golders Green

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Questionnaire Results
Brent Cross

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Questionnaire Results
The Broadwalk