The Lake District in the North West of England, and the Peak District which spans the southern end of the Pennines, have struggled to handle increased traffic from staycation breaks this year and leaders are looking to introduce new rules to reduce traffic during summer 2022.
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Richard Leafe, chief executive of the Lake District National Park, said: “It feels like we are at peak car. I want to see less reliance on it.
“It cannot go on getting worse, otherwise it really will become too much to handle in our national parks.
“We need to see a shift to more sustainable travel.”
The Lake District is now considering closing popular areas of the park to tourist vehicles during the peak season, but residents would still be allowed to drive as normal.
The area sees around 19 million visitors per year, 90 percent of whom travel to the park by car.
Last summer, shuttle buses were trialled in the Lake District in an attempt to decrease car traffic.
Tour busses could provide new jobs in the area whilst reducing pollution from multiple cars and causing less disruption to wildlife.
Bike leasing businesses would also receive a boost in business from the car ban.
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Similarly, the Peak District is planning to trial a “hail-a-ride” bus service to discourage visitors from driving.
Sarah Fowler, park chief executive, said: “It’s Uber but on bus scale. It’s not a scheduled bus service, but you hail it using an app, and it carries people from gateway sites into the park.”
She added that possible car-free days in the park were “a really interesting concept”.
But Twitter user Braders thought it was a good idea, tweeting: “A brilliant idea, should have been done years ago.
“They must improve public transport in those areas though, to allow tourists to travel and support the local businesses.”
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