Making Connections - have your say on greener travel in Greater Cambridge

Update 20 December 2021

The Making Connections: have your say on Greener Travel in Greater Cambridge consultation is now closed. The feedback will be analysed and will be submitted to our Executive Board in 2022 for a decision on how to move the project forward.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us.

What is Making Connections?

Making Connections asks for your thoughts on our proposals for transforming public transport, cycling and walking and reducing pollution and congestion.

We’re proposing:

• A new bus network, offering more frequent services, with longer operating hours, more rural connections, and new routes into our growing employment sites. You can find out more in the consultation brochure.
• Creating space for improvements to walking and cycling and our public spaces
• Options for raising money to pay for improvements to the transport network.

If you would like a hard copy of the consultation brochure or survey, or if you have any queries about the consultation, please contact us by emailing consultations@greatercambridge.org.uk or by telephone on 01223 699906.

Why do we need to act?

Our area is facing many pressures over the coming years and we need to reduce traffic levels by 10-15% on 2011 levels. The pressures include:

• Continued growth of traffic and congestion, as more people live in and travel to our area for work;
• Limited choices for people to travel by public transport;
• Poor air quality, with 106 deaths each year in Greater Cambridge attributable to air pollution;
• High levels of carbon emissions due to high levels of car use, contributing to climate change;
• A city environment dominated by the car, which discourages some people from walking and cycling and makes our public spaces less attractive;
• Difficulty accessing opportunities for those who rely on public transport.

We need a better public transport system to ensure that most people have a quicker, more convenient and reliable journey than by car. We need to make more efficient use of road space and significantly increase the number of sustainable public transport vehicles on our network, as well as creating better environments for people to cycle, walk or just spend time enjoying our public spaces.

What are we proposing?

The consultation sets out three main areas on which we’d like to hear your thoughts. It is the first of two consultations, with the second proposed for 2022 subject to our Executive Board’s approval.

• A new bus network: At the heart of the proposals would be a transformed bus network offering more frequent services, with longer operating hours, more rural connections, and new routes into our growing employment sites.
• Better cycling and walking routes and high quality public spaces: Lower traffic levels would create more opportunities to improve routes for people cycling and walking. Lower traffic levels and better air quality would also create more opportunities to provide high quality public spaces for people to enjoy, particularly in areas such as Mitcham’s Corner that are currently very traffic dominated.
• Funding transport improvements: There are two main ways to free up road space and raise money to invest in better bus services and more cycling and walking infrastructure – a road charging zone, or additional parking charges.

Any money raised through charges would be ringfenced for investment in sustainable transport improvements:

A road user charging zone would charge vehicles for driving within a set area. There are two main forms of road charging that would lower traffic levels, reduce pollution and create a funding stream for sustainable transport improvements:

• A pollution-based charge for road use based on vehicle emissions. Cars, vans and other vehicles that did not meet a set emissions standard would be charged to drive within an area.
• A flexible charge for road use which would charge all private vehicles, such as cars and vans, to drive within an area potentially varied by time of day or day of week.

Parking charges are currently applied in off-street car parks and on some streets. Additional changes could include applying higher charges to existing car parking, applying charges to more streets and introducing a Workplace Parking Levy. A Workplace Parking Levy is a yearly fee charged to businesses per parking space at business premises. Businesses can choose whether to pass on the cost of the charge to employees, reduce/remove their parking spaces or absorb the cost themselves.

The full proposals are in the consultation brochure which is also available under the documents section of this page.

The consultation closes at midday on Monday 20 December 2021 and you can complete the survey here.

If you have any queries about the consultation please contact us by email to consultations@greatercambridge.org.uk or by telephone on 01223 699906.