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Category - The City Deal
Response to Cambridge South East Transport consultation 2020
The Greater Cambridge Partnership is expected on 1 July 2021 to give the go-ahead for this scheme to proceed to its final stage before granting permission for its construction. The most recent information is available...
We need to plan the hard parts of a new transport system first
Before we agree to build busways outside the city, we must see detailed plans and costs for the route through the city core.
Jim ChisholmCitizens’ Assembly this autumn could shape Cambridge transport
This really is different from the forums and workshops used to date.
Can a Citizens’ Assembly break the Cambridge transport deadlock?
Citizens’ Assemblies to date have produced recommendations that are well-supported by the populations they represent.
For the Great and the Good, the answers are always in the next report
Answers are always promised, but when these arrive, they resolve little and pose more questions.
Our Cambridge South West Park & Ride consultation response
Why Smarter Cambridge Transport does not support any of the proposed options for expansion of Trumpington P&R or building a second site at Hauxton.
Before a congestion charge
Neither the Greater Cambridge Partnership nor the Combined Authority has a plan to transform bus services across the region.
A ‘people centric’ strategy or perpetual congestion?
Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) published a report in March that deserves more attention than its uninspiring title and status suggest.
We’re at a tipping point in the south of Cambridge
What’s the answer? We’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for nearly three years.
Response to Cambridge South East Transport Study (A1307) Consultation 2018
The full response to the consultation: why Smarter Cambridge Transport supports most of the short-term measures proposed (some with modifications), but does not support any of the three long-term strategies proposed.
Negotiating the elephant on the A1307
5,000 new jobs are coming to the Biomedical Campus by the middle of next year, with no extra transport provision for them.
What we need right now is not a busway
For South Cambridgeshire residents, what's needed are attractive, comfortable, reliable and flexible public transport options from close to where people live.
When is a bus not a bus?
The Mayor has maintained that buses aren't the answer for the Cambridge area, so the consultants have wheeled out something vaguely called a 'metro'.
A bridge over Foxton level crossing
There's a plan to re-route the A10 via a bridge or underpass and close the level crossing at Foxton. Unfortunately, as with Skanska's proposal for Whittlesford, the scope is too narrow.
Whittlesford station: the neglected gateway
Whittlesford has a neglected station with poor access. Upgraded to 'Parkway' status in 2007, it still lacks basic facilities like toilets or a bridge between the platforms suitable for people with limited mobility.
Response to ‘Cambourne to Cambridge’ consultation
Rather than building extensive new road capacity for buses, we need to make better use of existing road capacity, build travel hubs and re-route bus services, and create safe and convenient cycle and pedestrian routes...
Mass Transit Options Report does not meet the brief
Smarter Cambridge Transport has described a report on future transport options for the region as not meeting its brief.
Smarter Cambridge Transport: continuing to ask the questions
Smarter Cambridge Transport is growing, and in 2018 we'll continue to put forward the ideas and ask the questions. Here's how.
Smarter Cambridge Transport: our journey to date
Smarter Cambridge Transport came together to advance integrated, innovative and sustainable transport ideas. So, how have we done?
Can we have joined-up local government?
Confusion and blame-passing is almost daily between Planning (City Council) and Highways (County Council). We deserve better.
Why we’re getting a Cambourne-Cambridge busway
You maybe didn’t realise it at the time, but in 2014 you agreed to the County Council’s Long Term Transport Strategy.
A chance to say what you think
The new Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Big Conversation is a welcome initiative, even if it must be their last chance to get things right.
Cambridge can do better. But will it?
The authorities can take advantage of the expertise offered by the people they represent. Or they can spend their time arguing with us.
Greenways: an investment which everyone can support
Greenways will help reduce congestion and play a part in ensuring economic growth is sustainable. This is an investment which everyone can support.
Nodes before modes
Notice what’s missing in discussion about tunnels? Any mention of people. Forgive me repeating myself, but transport is about moving people (and goods) not vehicles.
Releasing Drummer St bus station from its dreary existence
The councils’ strategy for coping with growth is to have many more people commute by bus, but there’s no strategy yet for how to accommodate all the extra buses in the city.
We don’t want Cambridge to be laughed at
We don't want Cambridge to one day be laughed at as the last place in Britain to splash concrete everywhere before breakthroughs in transport technology and organisation solved unpredictable journey times forever...
What are we trying to achieve for Milton Road?
Despite valiant efforts by the new team leading the Milton Road City Deal scheme, their ‘Final Concept’ still fails the 8-80 age test for cycling and provides much less green space than the community-backed ‘Do Optimum’...
Garbage in means garbage out
Long ago when I worked in traffic research, I spent many days on cold street corners, counting traffic at junctions. I saw the first use of transponders on buses to ‘advance’ a green phase at traffic lights over 40...
‘Tried and tested’ please
We’ve been hearing a lot recently about an ‘Advanced Very Rapid Transit’ system for the Greater Cambridge area using ‘bullet buses’ travelling at up to 120mph. The City Deal press release used the words ‘cutting-edge’...
We need to talk about ‘consultation’
It’s time to change the way ‘consultation’ works (or doesn’t). Currently, residents might learn about a council project for the first time from an invitation to a ‘briefing’. Those who have time and inclination to...
Invest in rail, not dualling the A10
The argument for dualling the A10 from Ely is that it requires more capacity to cope with population growth; that slow commute times put fewer jobs within commuting distance and reduce economic productivity (though, for...
Where is the vision?
A refrain running through many of the questions to the City Deal is, “Where is the vision?” When Smarter Cambridge Transport put this question to the board last week, the audience was treated to three slides with vision...
Delivery Hubs for smarter goods distribution
Sometimes we don’t appreciate what a great example Santa Claus sets. All those presents from his toymakers are gathered together at a single distribution centre. Elves group the deliveries by chimney, and these...
Only Connect: a pretty good motto for public transport
Before Victoria Coren claimed ownership of “Only Connect,” it was E M Forster’s, extolling humans’ need to for connection. It’s also a pretty good motto for public transport: we spend a lot of time talking about cars...
Reducing Traffic Congestion and Pollution in Urban Areas
Ideas for reducing congestion and pollution in urban areas, developed in the context of the Greater Cambridge area, typical of many UK towns and cities.
Who will ensure that excellent design is at the heart of new developments?
The recently formed National Infrastructure Commission has published its report on the Cambridge–Milton Keynes–Oxford corridor. It identifies a chronic shortage of housing as the greatest risk to growth. Unsurprisingly...
30,000 people will be employed on the Biomedical Campus. How will they get there?
It’s notoriously hard to keep track of developments in ‘Greater Cambridge’. Each of the three councils and the City Deal has its own website, none of which can be described as particularly user friendly. All four bodies...
Response to Cambourne to Cambridge busway proposal
Further to our response to the public consultation, we have prepared seventeen key questions for the City Deal Executive Board to answer in relation to its decision on 13 October 2016 to progress a proposal to build a...
Rebooting the City Deal
[This article has been edited as the event has now passed] The Greater Cambridge City Deal: was there ever an initiative in Cambridge that united so many disparate groups of people against it, for so many different...
Rebooting the City Deal
Smarter Cambridge Transport held its first public event, Rebooting The City Deal, on Friday 14 October at Wolfson College, attended by around 250 people. Our thanks to Antony Carpen for videoing the event. Here are the...
Cambourne to Cambridge busway
The City Deal is proposing spending a £142m on a new road for buses from Cambourne to Cambridge. That might seem like a good idea, especially if you live in Cambourne, Highfields Caldecote or Hardwick and commute into...
Response to City Deal 8 Point Plan
This is the Smarter Cambridge Transport response to the City Deal on the 8 Point Plan to reduce congestion in Cambridge: Better public transport and Park & Rides We fully endorse this ambition, but with some...
Greater Cambridge City Deal: A New Approach
Areas of concern [Updated 23 August 2016: expanded section on access and parking permits] Here in summary are ten concerns that residents, businesses and observers have voiced about the City Deal: The City Deal is...