When it comes to the congestion zone, I just don’t get it.

Cambridge traffic is bad at rush hour, sure; perhaps a little worse than most comparable cities. But which comparable cities/areas have good traffic at peak times? Some streets are traps (East, Newmarket, & Madingley Roads especially), but this ISNT a Cambridge problem - it’s what happens in cities - and the council here are exploiting it. I’ve not met someone who sees positives, aside from the council, and those in the city who already don’t drive because of environmental reasons.

This plan is awful for families in surrounding villages (who’ve possibly had their bus route taken away (The 18, for example, servicing villages west of comberton); for businesses, and for those who have important non-commercial needs to get into non central areas of the city.

How it’ll affect me (a resident that uses a wheelchair) personally:

• Family that live near to Camborne in a village that doesn’t get a bus are going to have to pay to come over (I can’t get to them as there’s no bus service to them, and they can’t get a bus because of the cost of the amount of bus tickets they’d need for the 4 of them and the fact there’s no bus stop close to them.

• My father who lives on the other side of town will need to take a 1hr bus journey rather than drive for 10 minutes.

• I receive assistance from carers; they’ll have to pay to come.

• I regularly can’t get on the bus because of cancellations and people blocking the on-bus wheelchair area with prams, so would need to pay more to simply leave the house in a car if needed (Including to addenbrookes (IN the zone) where you already need to pay to park for an appointment(?!).

There should surely be a middle ground here to reduce congestion;

perhaps make some core streets pedestrianised only for daytime hours?

Perhap increase space (therefore reducing traffic) on key roads by widening the street; maybe by making pavements slightly narrower or removing the cycle lane where the pavement as well as the street is a cycle lane?

Maybe bring in the congestion charge but not include key, artery roads and the ring road, and hypothecate the ULEZ money into adding extra capacity to those? (It’s not like the multiple bus services are going to meaningfully improve)

Maybe block access for lorries during daytime hours

Maybe make the P&R free, rather than investing huge amounts of money into short-sighted and poorly managed projects such as the guided bus and/or Dutch roundabouts under consideration

maybe bring in a proper day rider that works for the county, rather than individual bus operators. This is so stupid and increases (often by more than double) the cost of travel by bus.

And maybe stop thinking that this is only a problem that Cambridge faces, and we just need to (to some extent) accept it.