Last year a Citizens Assembly considered how to reduce congestion, improve air quality and provide better public transport. What's happened since?
Author - Chris Rand
Why Uber’s business model is not good for our health
The pressure on public transport from investor-subsidised private alternatives won’t be for the public good.
Why we must listen to the next generation
How today's young people are using the opportunities given to them to research and propose fixes to the problems around us.
Why we need to insist that new streets are fit for purpose
Why Transport for New Homes' checklist needs to be translated into robust legislation, and why citizens need to demand that it gets more funding.
Why every village should want a travel hub (but not a Park & Ride)
Using terminology precisely and consistently is important in public debate. ‘Travel hub’ is not a euphemism for ‘Park & Ride’
Has the south east approach project been thrown off course?
The planned south east approach to Cambridge appears to miss the two main out of town employment sites, and the villages on the way.
Light rail: Cambridge shouldn’t be scared of proven technology
In this case, the popular option is also the right one.
Who’ll pay for the transport from Essex’s new town?
Somebody should be obligated to pay to provide really good public transport.
Learning from Oslo, the European Green Capital
We need a plan for our region, not just Cambridge, that is bigger and more holistic than anything produced to date.
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.
Why we need guidelines for electric vehicle on-street charging points
Virtually no electric vehicle infrastructure placement advice has been written.
Why an 80mph speed limit turns out to be bad for us all
It's a popular fallacy that increasing motorway speed limits would help drivers get to their destination more quickly
Taxi companies and their customers all need better legislation
The public wants a safe, regulated taxi service and the industry wants to provide it.
Car-free days open streets to people
When people ‘reclaim the streets’ from motor vehicles, it’s one of the highlights of the city’s calendar
A bus journey is about the experience
Before trying to knock a few minutes off bus journey times, we need to understand that the quality of the journey experience is arguably more important to people
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.
Frequency: the key to better public transport
Imagine a gate at the end of your driveway that opens only once every 30 minutes. You cannot apply a private motorist's mentality to shaping public transport policy.
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'.
Property developers must do better
It's almost as if a deliberate effort has been made to put off every mode of transport which we should be encouraging.
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.
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.
A walking tube map for Cambridge
The 'Metrominuto' map looks just like an underground map, showing lines of differing colours connecting different points of interest in the city.
Our Streets are for Everyone
When did it first become acceptable for drivers to simply stop and leave their vehicles along one or both sides of the road?
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...
Let’s make taking the bus more attractive
Twenty years ago, I found myself working in my company’s Manchester office for a week. One morning, the regional sales manager and I had an appointment in the city centre. In our suits and carrying briefcases, we...
Why Community Involvement is Essential
By the time you read this, the City Deal will have rubber-stamped funding for the set-up of neighbourhood parking schemes in Cambridge and beyond. While this policy was being developed, one such scheme was already going...
Let’s make our buses easier to understand
Those who don’t understand public transport don’t use it. Bus operators and local authorities all over the world could help themselves by giving passengers the sort of usability we take for granted on metro...
How do you solve a problem like moving a small town every day?
I haven’t met many people who fully grasp how big the Addenbrooke’s site (the Biomedical Campus) will become. It already hosts 15,000 employees, but the total could be double that, or 30,000, by 2030. To put things in...
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...
What do we want from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor?
“I’ll be with you in a minute. I’m listening to the mayor on the radio.” On 5 May 2017, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will join a handful of cities and regions with powers and money devolved from government. The...
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...
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...