seems like a good idea

[sunman]

we're on holiday in the US at the moment; visited Zion Canyon in Utah; a few years ago the traffic got so bad in and out of the canyon that they opened a big car park at the 'Visitor Centre' and now bus everybody up and down the canyon; we rode it, it works very well and I found myself wondering how much nicer Carvoeiro would be if they used some of the land behind Intermarche as a car park and bussed everybody into town, stopping a few times around the place, maybe going up restaurant hill and looping round to Edra,
would the centre of town be much nicer and calmer?

[snowytheboy]

They tried 'park and ride' a couple of years ago from a piece of land right at the top of restaurant hill down to the square - only lasted a few months - don't think it could have been used much as it was not repeated.

[Janet O]

From memory I don't think they advertised it enough or if they did not widely enough.
They did all the hard work and cleared the area of trees, weeds etc but
it was never clear what the area was meant for.

Shame really especially in light of the problems with parking.

Janet O

[pete-flint]

Ban town parking, deliveries only, that would reinforce the park and ride. Business people would also have to tow the line, or pay fines to go toward the scheme running costs.

[Octopus]

Ban town parking, deliveries only, that would reinforce the park and ride. Business people would also have to tow the line, or pay fines to go toward the scheme running costs.

Ban town parking? Brilliant way to ensure people don't bother coming to Carvoeiro from any surrounding towns

[joeysoap]

Never mind park and ride, park and walk, CVO isn't that big, just clear out that space beside the Mirachiro hotel and have plenty of parking signs leading to it.

[Bruce Wallis]

Never mind park and ride, park and walk, CVO isn't that big, just clear out that space beside the Mirachiro hotel and have plenty of parking signs leading to it.

That actually is a sensible suggestion. The walk up restaurant hill isnt THAT bad, and you might spot a restaurant you have never tried before!

[pete-flint]

Ban town parking, deliveries only, that would reinforce the park and ride. Business people would also have to tow the line, or pay fines to go toward the scheme running costs.

Ban town parking? Brilliant way to ensure people don't bother coming to Carvoeiro from any surrounding towns

PARK AND RIDE , does what it says on the tin. It would be five minutes on a bus/towntrain, not a real hardship. How far do you have to walk, after finding somewhere to park when it's market day in Loule ?

[Octopus]

Ban town parking, deliveries only, that would reinforce the park and ride. Business people would also have to tow the line, or pay fines to go toward the scheme running costs.

Ban town parking? Brilliant way to ensure people don't bother coming to Carvoeiro from any surrounding towns

PARK AND RIDE , does what it says on the tin. It would be five minutes on a bus/towntrain, not a real hardship. How far do you have to walk, after finding somewhere to park when it's market day in Loule ?

It adds to the inconvenience and the time taken. Plus its 5 minutes on a bus or train... and how long waiting on the bus or train in the first place?

There is *nothing* in Carvoeiro that I want to see or use that badly that I'd be willing to suffer public transport and delays to get it. Why not just have the parking in the centre like Vilamoura and put parking meters everywhere and charge 1 euro per hour. Thats a more sensible solution... people who are lazy or don't have time to waste can park in the centre and pay. People who would prefer to save the money can park on the outskirts for free and walk/bus into the centre.

[HampshireRich]

The problem CVO seems to have is there are no obvious places to create large enough car parks to make park and ride viable. There appears to be a lot of spare land if you look on Google maps, but most of these areas are on a huge slope. The actual shape of the down also does not help.

Additionally, if you have meters for an hour, which seems a good idea, how will the buses get round and about as the in/out roads will have cars down at least one side and presumably the buses will have the square as the main drop-off point.

Good ideas though on this topic and maybe someone will come up with a genius solution - so keep at it

[EMM]

There is already plenty of Parking around Algar seco and Monte dourado, why not keep the train running until 10.00pm with stops in these areas so that those who do not want to walk or who have mobility issues could for a nominal charge get to and from the square.
The problem is the taxi driver lobby who would object to the train taking their business ??

[snowytheboy]

All this talk of 'Park and Ride' and parking meters seems to be aimed at the visitors - what about the people who stay in the centre of the village - would they get permits to park, have to park miles away or pay a fortune at meters. If they were to get permits, then there would still be very little parking available in the town. If they had to park in 'Park and Ride' then who is going to provide security in the car park, especially over night.

[cumbria sue]

nobody seems to be considering disabled people in all these discussions

[EMM]

There are spaces reserved for badge holders ( probably not enough ) which we have seen used by Brits on holiday with their UK badges.
We have also seen them abused by others, tourists etc who fortunately we have seen being ticketed by the GNR.