General Chat

I used to carry bags of 5 p's to pay meter charges....

Cambridge is a bit good too. Loads of space at Trumpington and a proper bus station too.

You can get close to whichever college you need.

Names, Oxford was the first P & R I ever went on - and it was lovely!
You get to see bits you'd never normally see.

RTR, St Peter's will charge up to £15 to park there, which is okay if you don't mind throwing money away, and it's a fair walk to the shops, for those who don't like lugging heavy shopping.
Not sure what car park you've found 'near' M & S.
There's Colebrook St, Upper Brook St, and Lower Brook St - all with limited parking, but none 'near' M & S.

King Alfred's run on New Years day, from the Broadway.
They and Hants & Dorset haven't run for years.
Yes, the bus station's still there, but greatly changed.

Our main hospital changed to on exit paying a few years ago but I like the idea of claiming back unused time on a pay before system - I had never heard of that. Maybe I was just lucky not to need to.

P&R doesn't cut down pollution, it moves it to the county for us and adds to congestion around an M1junction. People travel further to get here than they would to the city, so more pollution and traffic on the road but in a different place. Here if you go into the P&R but change your mind you have to pay the charge to get out again. That was £10 when it first opened, not sure what it costs now. Few stops in the city means carrying all your shopping everywhere. No wonder people don't use it to the extent that the council have let spaces to local businesses for parking.

We have lost money at our Hospital Car park. You can claim refunds for unused parking time, but not on a Bank Holiday! You have to go back after the holiday which would cost more than you are claiming back. :-S

I didn’t mean the food shopping as I shop more locally.. But a new pair of shoes, a new suit and other odds and ends could be bulky and heavy.

For Oxford I have to drive past the P&R so makes sense to use it. For Winchester the P &R is just off the road I use so why not use it? The P&R at Salisbury wasn’t there the last time I drove in. The P&R at York was also more convenient than trying to find the city centre car parks.

Why not be adventurous and try one.

This thread isn’t about what cars you use or ones you dream of owning.

I quite like the 'tap and go' type of payment, I've used it on car parks and trams. You can use it on buses too, if you don't have a bus pass to tap and go.
Also I have used car parks where you push the card into the slot but don't need a PIN, similar to the Peage on the French autoroutes.

Where my sister lives the buses have been no change given for years for security reasons.

Can't get change on buses in most areas now.
Due to covid, apparently :-(

Going back to the original question I think the 'no change' machine have been around a long time.

For the occasional bus user this has been going on for years in London it has been no cash for some years. Village car parks would often cost me a little bit more than expected as the charges would sudddenly go up and you would have to use a bigger coin and lose the odd 20p. The Town centre carparks would give change until their recent reinvention of bank card only.

I wouldn't be at all happy will waving good bye to £1.20, which is why I usually have a few pound coins to hand. I do think machines should nowadays give more than one option to pay. What I don't like is the pallaver of having to register to pay at a meter when it is a one off visit.

Birmingham is going to be intersting with its new charges as you have to be so self aware and it will catch out lots of visitors as there is no notifcation warniong that payment is due.

I suppose they could claim it says on their website that no change is given.
Whether it actually states the cost of parking is another matter.
I think it's theft.

ZZzz I think Maddie had the answer.

Rollo may like to rethink the use of Oxford P&R as Oxford is planning an ultra low emission zone in the near future. Many of the central roads are still closed to traffic following COVID planning.

Looking at Salisbury, most of their central car parks are maximum of 3 hours, leaving just a couple of all day parks.

But is it fraud????

P & R also saves the centre becoming polluted - and is often the cheapest place to park. It's also one payment for the day.

RTR, if you didn't use the P & R at Winchester, where exactly did you park?
I'm only asking, as, if you go through town, you're likely to be in a jam for longer than it takes the P & R bus to travel to town!

The method of payment does not make the use of car parks any safer. You still have to traipse through a potentially badly lit and insecure car park to get too and from your car.

P&R car parks save you from driving round and round city car parks trying to find one that has a space. Not all of them link into the app for finding spaces. P&R stops can be numerous and saves you slogging from one end of the city to the other with heavy bags.

I usually keep a few coins in my car for parking. But since COVID the town centre multistories only seem to take cards.

If Rollo used the P&R at Winchester he could choose to pay with coins ( useful if you’ve runout of charge) AND he wouldn’t have to top up as it is all day parking.

Exactly nameslessone.
RTR I still think it is fraud and that there should a grace period to give you time to get some change and I wasn't about to lose £1.20 because I only had a £2 coin.

Not much help if you don’t have a smart phone.

Sexism.