Almost guaranteed to be some form of road pricing. The technology existed thirty years ago, when I lived in Cambridge in the late 80's early 90's they were looking at it then. Modern technology will only have made it easier to roll out.
As a local, I recall hearing on the grapevine that Cambridge City Council are again considering a ULEZ like London. They already have a few park and ride places out of town plus the 'guided busway' (though it was a huge loss given the build cost), so going the extra mile wouldn't be that much more for them - politically at least.
It wouldn't be popular though. The only real alternative for most people in the region are second/third-rate town/small city centres and/or online shopping. For me, certain items such as furniture (beds, sofas, etc) and clothing/footwear need physical shops - I'm not one for having somethigndelivered then returned (often at my cost) if I don't like it.
And obviously no good for beds and sofas, given you'd have nothing after returning an unwanted item.
Public transport between the shops of these types is poor / patchy to say the least, and I wouldn't want to lug loads of shopping around all day (obviously not furniture, though I did recently have to [rapidly] buy a microwave oven when mine broke) from one shop to the next, whether on a bus or train/tram.
I think it would be far better to improve/reduce the cost of commuting public transport from surrounding towns/villages to avoid most of the congestion/pollution issues, which essentially occur from 7am to 7pm on weekdays, with barely an hour's let up mid morning and early afternoon before the school are out and commute resumes.
It would reduce the leisure weekend commute, especially if they put on more late evening/wee hours services to cover people going home.
The train services have improved with the newer rolling stock, platform extensions and the upgrade of Cambridge Station (and the addition of Cambridge North for the Science Park area), but there are still far more services going south/SW towards London on the two lines serving the city than towards it during the peak periods.
Plus the sort-of remote location of the city station and congestion around it makes getting into town quickly impossible at peak periods, not helped by having no similar scheme to the London travelcard (or Oyster card) to avoid paying high bus fares for either the transfer into the city centre and/or short hops round the city to the various shopping areas and some on the periphery/satellite villages and towns.
Currently for me (living 15 miles away) it is cheaper - and often quicker (given I can park where I want near to where I'm going) to go by car - even in the nighmare rush hour times. Plus I then have a nice big boot to dump shopping in through the day.
I will be doing this one day next week as I'll be going clothes/shoe shopping in Cambridge itself, possibly going to the cinema and, time permitting, may also fit in some preliminary browsing at some furniture stores for a new bed/mattress. Not so easy if I didn't have a car (one of the journeys may be to furniture stores in a village well outside Cambridge and a well known one in Bury St. Edmunds).
|
