Travelling times

Crunch! In Cambridge, Mike Marsh is having a bad day.

He has just driven his company BMW into a solid metal bollard in the middle of the road, put there to keep cars out of the city centre.

It has shattered his bumper and he is not a happy man.

"I thought you could drive along there.

The bus went over, but by that time I couldn't see it because my vision was blocked by the bonnet. I'm a bit p-off to be honest."

The offending bollard is evidence of this city's attempts to change the way people think about how they get around.

"We often describe it as a hierarchy where you can see pedestrians at the centre, then you have the cyclists, then you have the bus, then you have cars"
Brian Smith -Transport Director at Cambridge County Council

As a bus approaches it automatically lowers, triggered by special sensors.

But for cars it rises defiantly back into position.

The message - if you're not on public transport, you're not coming in.

Brian Smith, Transport Director at Cambridgeshire County Council, puts it bluntly:

"We often describe it as a hierarchy where you can see pedestrians at the centre, then you have the cyclists, then you have the bus, then you have cars."

Car-free city centre

This hierarchy has allowed Cambridge to manage two feats of modern transport policy, which Britain nationally struggles with.

It has reduced traffic levels slightly, something Labour in government has only dreamt about.

And it has got more people using the bus, in sharp contrast to many areas of the country.

Arrive by train in Cambridge and outside the station you are confronted by a sea of parked bicycles.

They line almost every wall in town, so ubiquitous their owners do not even bother to chain them to anything.

Heading out of town you reach a ring of five different park and ride sites - plenty of places to leave the car, and plenty of buses to get you into central Cambridge.

They are colour-coded, so passengers know which bus to catch back.

Whether they cycle or catch the bus, the result is the same. A city centre free of cars, and thronging with people on foot.

No alternative?

But Cambridge also demonstrates something else. Better public transport is not the only way to help people get around more easily.

BUS STOPS

Full details of the election bus tour

Take Howard Cradock. He recruits driving instructors, and lives in a village outside Cambridge. His wife uses the park and ride - but he rarely goes into town.

Instead he has to travel to all sorts of other towns in the region. Usually that means braving the A14.

Just the mention of it provokes a shudder.

"I was driving down the A14 recently and all of a sudden the back end of this van went straight onto its side and slid along in front of me," he said.

Local papers complained that on three successive days last week serious accidents jammed up the A14.

Howard's strategy is to avoid it altogether.

"I'd rather go 10 minutes out my way to avoid the A14 and get there half an hour quicker," he said.

But the traffic has been so bad that he has started working partly from home now. He said he was missing his children growing up.

One of his driving school cars bears the logo "Let's Drive!"

So could he use public transport instead?

His answer: Going by train would have taken far longer, and just was not an option.

So here is the problem for politicians - you can improve a city like Cambridge by improving public transport.

But that will not help people who want to go cross-country like Howard, who cannot find an alternative to driving.

Perhaps for this reason the three main parties are offering a mix of ideas - investment in trains and buses, as well as selective road building.

Improvements to the A14 are long awaited by many in the area, though fiercely opposed by anti-roads campaigners.

Practical solutions needed

Transport and architecture professor Marcial Echinique at Cambridge University agrees a pragmatic approach is needed:

"Some people argue we don't need to build more roads. That's nonsense. We need to build more roads because 80% of the traffic is by road, either passengers or freight. We also need public transport.

TRANSPORT FACTS

• Traffic was 1.7 % higher in 2004 than 2003
• In 2003, 85% of journeys were made by car, van or taxi
• Only 12% were made by bus or rail
• Rail fares in the UK are the third highest in Europe
• The government has pledged to spend £12.8bn in transport between 2004 and 2007

Commuter stress - just plan better

It is very good for central locations - towards the centre of London or towards the centre of Cambridge, but not suburb to suburb."

There is something else the Cambridge area tells us. Or at least it might in future.

Hi-tech industries are spreading fast near the city, and between Cambridge and London the government wants to see up to 47,000 new homes built.

Levels of traffic congestion are predicted to grow fast. Professor Echinique believes it is crucial to plan now how all those people are going to get around.

"If we don't improve the structure it will be very detrimental. Everybody needs to move to shops, to schools, to work, to recreation to social life and so on. If we don't improve that, more congestion will diminish the quality of life."

Making sure it does not happen will require a serious attempt to encourage drivers to drive less.

For Labour and the Liberal Democrats that includes electronic charges to use the roads. For the Conservatives, it means making rail travel more appealing with renovated stations and giving train companies more freedom about how they run their services.

But it will almost certainly mean more investment in the road network too.

Sorting out our transport problems is one of the toughest challenges facing anyone who wants to govern a country like Britain or a city like Cambridge.

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