Geography- analysis of graphs

The graph above shows that interviewees travelled to the Birmingham City Centre mainly to work. Fewer people travelled to the Birmingham City Centre to go shopping. The majority of car users travelled to work using a car. However the majority of train users also travelled to the Birmingham City Centre to go to work. Many said it was a lot faster due to having no problems with traffic jams. The majority of bus users went to the Birmingham City Centre to shop. These were mainly from group F (60+). They said using a bus was cheaper due to them having a bus pass at cheaper rates but also because, since they used a bus they wouldn’t have to spend time finding a car parking space. Buses also came frequently to bus stops throughout the day, so in this way people didn’t spend time in traffic jams, as they would if they travelled using a car. Some of the people I interviewed lived closer to the Birmingham City Centre. The majority of those people travelled using a train. This was mainly because of the fact it was a lot cheaper and a lot quicker to reach the Birmingham City Centre.  The majority of people who travelled to the Birmingham city centre to shop and for leisure also said that they would like to see more pedestrianised areas. The majority of these people also travelled via public transport.  In contrast people, who travelled via a car to go to work, said that they would like to see less pedestrianised areas. This graph can also be linked with the graph that shows where people travelled from. This is because it would link how far people travelled from for a particular type of reasons to go to the Birmingham City Centre e.g. for work.

This graph above shows that the people who I interviewed travelled to the Birmingham City Centre from different directions and different areas. This means that the Birmingham City Centre has a wide sphere of influence. There were 26 different places to be exact. The highest from anyone place was 29%. West Bromwich has the highest percentage of people. The main reason for this is because this is the one the nearest places near the City Centre. Places like Dudley are much further away from the City Centre (Walsall, Telford and Wolverhampton). Although few people came from these places, these distances are quite big and if cars are used for long journeys congestion will increase.

This graph shows that 43% of interviewees found that public transport was poor. Most people who said that public transport was poor were people that travelled using cars. In addition, some car users said they didn’t know whether public transport was good or bad due to them not experiencing it.  Although the graph only shows 1% had said that they didn’t know, most people commented after by saying that they hadn’t already experienced public transport. 42% of interviewees who travelled via public transport said that they thought that the service of public transport was good. However some said that the service of public transport was satisfactory and needed improving.

The graph above shows the amount of people who said what they thought about whether public transport needs to be improved. As seen above 55% of people said that they wanted public transport to be improved. However 10% said that they strongly disagreed with the idea. A lot of car users said that they agreed with improving public transport. Many said that if public transport was improved, they would use it instead of using cars. In contrast, many long term users of public transport said it was fine the way it currently was and didn’t need improving. Most people who said that public transport needed improving came from groups A (16-24) and B (25-33). However the majority of people in groups D (52-60) and E (60+) said that it didn’t need improving. This also showed that from previous analysis, interviewees that were in the older age groups used public transport more, and found that it was cheaper.