A Green Transport Revolution

We need a rapid shift to greener travel, with a more joined-up approach to transport planning and a focus on ending fossil fuel dependence.

Our bus services are too expensive, too infrequent and are not integrated with wider travel networks. Lack of good public transport provision deepens inequalities by further disadvantaging people who cannot afford to live close to where the jobs are, or to run a car.

Although Cambridge has the highest level of cycling of any city in the UK, we could do even better by improving the cycle network. Active travel saves money and improves health and well-being, while benefitting those less able to cycle or walk by reducing traffic jams and improving air quality. Providing viable public and active transport options motivates car drivers to move away from car use.

Driving must be discouraged, to reduce congestion as well as carbon emissions. CSCGP believe a Workplace Parking Levy, a tax paid by large employers on staff parking bays, would be a fair and effective first step. The money raised would be invested in improvements to public transport. The search should also continue for a fairer, less expensive form of road-pricing, one that might encourage able-bodied citizens to choose bus or active travel over car travel¹⁴. We thus support the 2022 House of Commons Select Committee’s recommendation to replace fuel duty and vehicle excise duty with road-pricing based on the duration and time of the journey and vehicle type and size. Introducing emissions-based parking charges for residents’ parking, as in some London boroughs, would also be beneficial, with very small (and electric or hybrid) vehicles charged at a markedly lower rate than large, heavy and highly polluting vehicles, along with higher parking charges in the city for SUVs (with appropriate exemptions e.g. for the disabled), as is being considered in Paris, London and elsewhere. The growing popularity of very large cars (“autobesity”) increases carbon and particulate emissions, as well as road damage¹⁵, and endangers pedestrians, cyclists and even other motorists in smaller cars.

CSCGP agrees with the principle of developing a rail network that would allow many more people to reduce their car use. However, the East West Rail (EWR) infrastructure and its construction must have minimal environmental impact, the trains must be electric, safety must be paramount and there should be good, active travel links along the route.

Though invisible, air pollution in Cambridgeshire is deadly. In Greater Cambridge over 100 deaths in 2020 were directly due to this lethal mixture of gases and particulates, which can affect people of all ages through strokes, heart attacks, asthma and allergies. The Greens consider that the current air pollution strategy should be fully implemented and that we should comply with the more rigorous WHO standards. We reject the argument, seemingly accepted by Cambridge City Council, that having to build so many houses (producing yet more pollution) justifies lower standards¹⁶.

Green-led Councils would:

work to secure major investment in active transport to create a fully interconnected, properly segregated cycle network which is maintained to high standards (prioritising urgent action on safety issues such as potholes and non- gritted surfaces in icy weather);
ensure the Combined Authority delivers much improved, modernised bus services that are well connected, fast, cheap and convenient to use, and offers better fare structures for all journeys, clear information about fares and bus timing, tap on/ tap off options etc.;
continue to oppose new off-road busways, in favour of on-road bus priority measures;
introduce a Workplace Parking Levy, with suitable exemptions including for NHS premises and disabled parking spaces;
introduce emissions-based parking charges for residents’ parking;
support the further development and roll-out of innovative solutions to reduce private car use, including car-sharing schemes, on-demand minibus services and electric scooter/ bicycle hire, with vehicles designed to be accessible to as many people as possible;
engage with the design of Greenways, making sure the views of residents and users are taken into account and that the road user hierarchy is built into the design to avoid conflict between different categories of users;
combat air pollution by planting boundaries to parks and playgrounds with e.g. cotoneaster.

¹⁴	https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmtrans/789/summary.html
¹⁵	The Fourth Power Rule: doubling the weight on a vehicle’s axle will do sixteen times as much damage to the roadbed.
¹⁶	https://www.scambs.gov.uk/greater-cambridge-air-quality-strategy-consultation/