What transport for Cambridge?

A detailed study of the city’s roads, traffic and public transport network has been carried out by Cambridge Futures, the organisation working to give the public and decision-makers answers to the big questions facing Cambridge in the 21st Century.

Four years ago, the group - made up of university experts, council leaders, businesses and planners - came up with a radical study on the impact of continuing city growth.

It investigated bringing houses closer to where the jobs are by expanding into the green belt, building on brown field sites and locating development along potential public transport corridors.

Amongst other hot topics studied were suggestions that Cambridge Airport could be moved and the land used to build a new suburb for the City, and whether a new settlement should be built in the Oakington area, ideas that local councils have since embedded in their policies.

The latest study focuses on how the transport system can cope with the expansion of employment and population and details are to be revealed in a report, exhibition and DVD.

The transport study has been two years in the making and has included seminars that have discussed innovative measures to secure the £1bn that the area is reported to need for upgrading its infrastructure - roads, schools and community facilities etc.

Cambridge Futures 2 has been examining a number of transport options as additions to the base case, which is the existing transport infrastructure plus improvements proposed by the Cambridgeshire County Structure Plan. Four generic options have been tested.

Can the transport developments for Cambridge, renowned as a cycling city, help the area buck the national decline in cycling and walking and serve the new city edge developments and beyond?

Will a huge additional investment in integrating the public transport networks with tunnels and interchanges under the city-centre tempt enough commuters out of their cars?

Will the reduction in city traffic encouraged by completing the road network around the south and east of the city, serving the new city edge developments and beyond, justify the costs of a road tunnel under the environmentally sensitive Gog Magog hills and the other external impacts?

Could congestion charging be as effective here as in London or would the rise in costs to commuters and employers outweigh the reduced congestion and opportunities to use the revenues on public projects?

Would all of these options together result in more than the sum of the parts, with congestion charging revenues paying for the infrastructure investment?

After the launch, a public exhibition will then move to Lion Yard Cambridge (29th September to 4th October) and then other venues in the area. The results of the study will play an important part in public understanding of the choices in developing the infrastructure investment strategy for the Cambridge sub-region and its accompanying response survey will enable decision-makers to gauge public views.