What is Current Parking Situation in the Old Town?

Martin Pounce summarises initial findings from the parking survey

As part of the research phase I conducted two surveys in February and March. The first counted the number of spaces at different times of day in the High Street, Market Square, Broadway and Whielden Street.

High Street was divided into three sections: High Street West (from Mill Lane to Drake’s Almshouses); High Street Middle (from Drake’s Almshouses to Thornhill Close including the middle of the road parking); High Street East (from Thornhill Close to Market Hall). Whielden Street was also divided in three: Whielden Street North (from Market Square to the Platt), Whielden Street Middle (from the Platt to the bus stop opposite Gilbert Scott Court) and Whielden Street South (the free parking bays outside Amersham Hospital).

I counted spaces from Monday to Sunday of the week beginning 23 February.

The tables below show the number of spaces on each of the days.

Monday 23 February

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	26	41	17	4	21	0	2	10
9.00	18	17	0	0	16	0	0	0
11.00	7	2	0	0	4	0	0	1
13.00	9	2	0	0	4	1	0	1
15.00	16	12	2	1	4	0	1	0
17.00	24	31	20	4	17	1	9	10
19.00	13	39	12	0	4	0	0	14
21.00	xx	xx	xx	xx	xx	xx

Tuesday 24 February

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	23	50	11	5	27	1	1	14
9.00	16	12	0	0	15	0	1	0
11.00	2	0	0	0	2	0	1	0
13.00	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
15.00	4	12	0	0	2	0	3	0
17.00	25	15	5	3	11	0	2	5
19.00	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX
21.00	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX

Wednesday 25 February

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	22	46	19	2	25	0	6	10
9.00	20	18	0	0	5	0	0	0
11.00	4	2	0	0	4	0	0	0
13.00	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
15.00	5	9	0	0	6	0	4	0
17.00	10	10	1	0	17	1	5	7
19.00	3	39	8	0	0	0	4	9
21.00	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX	XX

Thursday 26 February.

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	19	49	13	1	24	1	6	11
9.00	18	8	0	0	10	0	1	0
11.00	1	7	0	1	5	1	0	0
13.00	1	3	0	0	6	0	1	1
15.00	4	16	3	0	6	0	0	1
17.00	11	23	8	0	21	1	5	14
19.00	14	20	0	0	0	0	4	14
21.00	6	28	2	0	7	2	2	15

Friday 27 February

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	24	49	19	5	29	xx	x	x
9.00	19	9	0	1	4	0	1	8
11.00	1	5	2	0	1	1	1	2
13.00	1	0	0	0	0	3	4	0
15.00	4	14	4	0	0	6	10	0
17.00	20	20	0	0	1	4	2	15
19.00	5	17	0	0	1	0	0	12
21.00	2	16	3	0	0	0	2	7

The pattern on weekdays

This shows the High Street spaces filling up from the Market Hall between 9.00 and 13.00; spaces beginning to reappear in the afternoon and then reducing in the evening as pub and restaurant customers arrive.

The north and middle of Whielden Street have very few spaces at any time and the free parking bays fill up by 9.00 and empty between 15.00 and 17.00.

Week-end spaces

Saturday 28 February

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	23	48	18	5	27	0	4	20
9.00	23	16	1	2	20	2	3	18
11.00	14	22	0	2	2	1	1	3
13.00	2	16	2	0	2	1	1	2
15.00	xx	xx	xx	xx	xx	xx	x	x
17.00	13	24	8	0	13	0	3	14
19.00	xx	xx	xx	xx	xx	0	1	9
21.00	9	11	8	0	19	1	4	12

Sunday 1 March

	High St west	High St middle	High St east	Market Square	Broadway	Whielden St north	Whielden St middle	Whielden St south
7.00	23	26	21	4	28	0	10	14
9.00	19	32	19	1	14	0	9	13
11.00	17	29	1	0	0	0	7	14
13.00	7	21	6	0	1	0	4	14
15.00	7	7	0	0	3	0	0	5
17.00	18	33	10	1	13	0	3	14
19.00	15	36	11	3	2	1	2	12
21.00	20	37	20	3	16	0	4	12

Dovecote Car Park

In the same week, I counted spaces in Dovecote Car Park. This shows the number of free spaces including – in the right column – the number of available disabled parking spaces.

The tables below show an interesting pattern:

Monday 23 February

7.00	xx	xx
9.00	xx	xx
11.00	105	9
13.00	70	10
15.00	78	9
17.00	xx	xx
19.00	171	9
21.00	xx	xx

Tuesday 24 February

7.00	xx	10
9.00	xx	10
11.00	67	6
13.00	53	xx
15.00	59	10
17.00	110	10
19.00	xx	xx
21.00	xx	xx

Wednesday 25 February

7.00	177	10
9.00	78	10
11.00	80	9
13.00	37	8
15.00	66	6
17.00	122	10
19.00	154	9
21.00	xx	xx

Thursday 26 February

7.00	177	10
9.00	116	10
11.00	86	10
13.00	65	10
15.00	86	10
17.00	130	9
19.00	165	10
21.00	140	10

Friday 27 February

Counting missed

Saturday 28 February

Counting missed

Sunday 1 March

7.00	174	10
9.00	170	10
11.00	130	10
13.00	129	10
15.00	140	10
17.00	167	10
19.00	176	10
21.00	175	10

It seems from this that Dovecote Car Park is never full – although the picture may be different in the summer when tourism is stronger.

How long do parked cars stay?

A few weeks later, I conducted a survey to discover what time cars arrived and left in the High Street. The table below shows the census for 10 March. I used small, different coloured tickets – white for cars which were parked at 7.00, pink for cars parking between 7.00 and 9.00, green for cars parking between 9.00 and 11.45, and yellow for cars arriving before 13.30. The timings varied a little from day to day because of my other commitments but every weekday showed a similar pattern.

Wednesday 11 March

	White	Pink	Green	Yellow	None	Total
7.00	117					117
9.00	77	94				171
11.00
13.00	56	82		55		193
15.00
17.00	49	45		12	43	149

Thursday 12 March

	White	Pink	Green	Yellow	None	Total
7.00	118					118
9.00	88	101				189
11.00	65	84	33			182
13.00
15.00
17.00	50	44	10		42	146

Friday 13 March

	White	Pink	Green	Yellow	None
7.00	112					112
9.00	87	70				157
11.00	70	52	68			190
13.00	58	49	36	50		193
15.00	56	42	18	12	44	172
17.00

Saturday 14 March

	White	Pink	Green	Yellow	None
7.00	125					125
9.00
10.00	100	58				158
12.30	77	39	60			176
14.30	66	35	19	52		172
16.30	58	25	8	25	32	148

Sunday 15 March

	White	Pink	Green	Yellow	None	Total
7.00	118					118
9.30	104	17				121
12.00	71	9	65			145
14.30	65	8	27	78		178
16.30	57	8	21	28	59	173

There were 110-120 cars parked in the High Street at 7.00. A large number had left by 9.00 – presumably residents driving to work – but almost half were parked all day. Between 101 (on Thursday) and 70 (on Friday) cars arrived in the High Street before 9.00 and about half of those remained until after 4 o’clock. On 10 March only a quarter of the cars parking between 9.00 and 11.45 remained at 4 o’clock.