Smarter Cambridge Transport

Category - Roads

Vision Zero: let’s make it a reality

To many, reducing speed limits seems perverse. But the reduced grief and pain, and increased freedom for our children, is more than worth it.

Bigger lorries coming down the road

A consultation is looking at allowing articulated lorries some 2 metres longer than at present, as well as permitting 48-tonne lorries.

Making the Highway Code safer for people

The Highway Code is up for revision with a view to reinforcing the rights and protections of people walking, cycling or riding a horse.

Reimagining our highways

Communities are starting to reimagine their streets. Start a conversation with neighbours and ask your councillors to help make it a reality.

A revolution in transport is afoot

When we see the government reallocate the new-roads budget to public transport we will know it is seriously committed to restoring the environment.

Sequencing is critical

Why increasing road capacity with more lanes just buys time ...and worse, the business case for the sustainable stuff evaporates

Why is Hills Road falling to pieces?

It's a question which can be asked about many roads, but in this case the reason may be history as much as any lack of care by the County Council.

Why a £13m overspend in Ely matters

The Ely Southern Bypass is £21m over its original budget. We should be extremely wary of funding large infrastructure projects from council borrowing not covered by new income streams.

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...

The elephants in the room: HGVs

Investing in new road capacity is expensive, environmentally damaging, and usually only a temporary solution. A distance-based HGV levy plus more investment in railways would achieve a much better outcome.

6 Things To Know About Self-Driving Cars

Most people - and governments - are barely considering the implications of this revolution, but we should be. This is all going to happen much sooner than most of us think.

Should HGVs pay their way in the city?

A charge which would remain affordable to HGV operators could deter unnecessary peak-time movements and raise a substantial amount of money from others.

Let Cherry Hinton set an example

The ‘spine’ of the new airport development should be a green corridor, ideal for walking and cycling, and it must be available from day one.

Making our Rural Roads Safer

Much has been discussed about major upgrades for busy rural roads. But we need to reduce crashes, save lives, and make rural travel safer for those in cars, on cycles, on horses and by foot on the 99% of rural roads...

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’...

Do I have to take a taxi from the station?

If we want to make Cambridge railway station less car dependent, what more could we do to promote walking, cycling and bus travel? Many visitors arriving at the station take a taxi simply because other options are...

Saving the Green Belt with sustainable transport

Green belt land has two purposes: preserving countryside for future generations, and preventing urban sprawl. Unfortunately our green belt protection policies are failing to prevent sprawl, and endangering the...

A lesson from Plymouth

In the excellent Urban Transport Without The Hot Air by Steve Melia, there’s a study that has important implications for Cambridge and Cambourne. Ivybridge is a small town in Devon, just under 10 miles from Plymouth...

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...

Building more road capacity is futile

As long ago as 1924 it was realised that building new roads attracts additional traffic. In 1994 the Government Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment confirmed this in a landmark report, which led to the...

What is ‘Inbound Flow Control’?

You will know that the City Deal has plans (“but no decisions have been made yet”) to build a busway from Cambourne to Cambridge, to add more bus lanes to Milton Road, and to build a bus lane on Histon Rd between King’s...

How many cars do you think drive into Cambridge most weekdays?

A quiz for you: how many cars do you think drive into Cambridge most weekdays? What proportion are looking to park on the streets for free? If we incentivised people not to do this, would it make a difference? We now...

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...

Air pollution: killing 40,000 people across the UK every year

Did you know that air pollution kills an estimated 40,000 people across the UK every year? That compares with 1,800 road deaths. In October nine Royal Colleges of Medicine launched the Breath of Fresh Air initiative...

A14 Girton Interchange (archived page)

How Highways England's improvements to the A14 Girton Interchange should provide new connections between the A428 and M11, and a new Park & Ride.

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...

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...

Show your support for new neighbourhood parking schemes

We will be presenting our petition, which gained 1,317 signatures from all city wards, to the Highways and Community Infrastructure Committee when it meets on 14 March 2017 to consider an updated Residents’ Parking...

Response to Milton Rd and Histon Rd consultations 2015/16

Next key date: 20 March 2019. The Executive Board will be considering final outline designs for Milton Road before proceeding to detailed designs and building in 2020–21. The Assembly meets on 27 February to pre...

Localism and the strategic transport network

There is an urgent need for localism to include Highways England and the rail industry. The inability of local authorities to include strategic highways and railways in their short and medium term transport planning is...

Can we do better than bus lanes?

The County Council’s view ‘Bus priority’ has come to be used interchangeably with ‘bus lane’ or ‘busway’: the Cambridgeshire Long Term Transport Strategy (November 2014) refers to, “On-line or off-line bus priority...

Inbound Flow Control

What is Inbound Flow Control? Inbound Flow Control is a powerful technique for reducing congestion. Traffic lights on the edge of the city release vehicles only as fast as the road ahead can carry them. By restricting...

Smart Traffic Management

How Smart Traffic Management and Smart Traffic Lights regulate the flow of traffic through the city in response to demand.