KeithW wrote:In fact the result of the missing movements is to cause chaos when the slightest thing goes wrong. For example a northbound incident on the M11 means that anybody wanting to get to the Park and Ride , University west and Madingley Rise area from the M11 southnound has no alternative but to go through the centre of Cambridge simply because the highways designers have come to the conclusion that nobody driving south on the M11 would ever want to go there. Even with 'normal' traffic its common between 8.30 and 9.30 to find traffic queues northbound in lane 1 for the Madingley Road that reach back to the Barton Road junction. Many of those vehicles are only they have been forced to use that route. It is so routine now that 90% of the users know that local custom is to queue for Madingley Road on the hard shoulder.
The NW Cambridge site off Madingley road which is well underway is aimed to add the following
1,500 homes for University and College staff
1,500 private houses for sale
Accommodation for 2,000 postgraduates
100,000 sqm of academic and research and development space of which up to 40% may be private research with University connection or Research Institutes
Community facilities such as a primary school, community centre, health centre, supermarket and local shops.
A hotel
Care home
Improvements to the M11 junction - none. But they are promising cycle paths so that's all right then.
...and you've sort of touched on why. The City Council was the only local authority in the area opposed to the A14 upgrade, mainly because of Huntingdon Road. Madingley Road has the same issues; if you make it easy for traffic to approach Cambridge from the North that way, it drops them onto the city streets, either into the mess at Mount Pleasant (Huntingdon Road) or onto The Backs.
Quite simply, the Uni wouldn't want it, and it's probably them that'd stop any such upgrades going in. Much better to force them further along the A14 and in on Milton Road (which is thus jammed as a result) or further down the M11 to use Trumpington Road, not that the city wants the cars in town in the first place if they can help it. Even Newnham allows traffic to drop onto the Fen Causeway, away from the scenic stuff and the one-way system mess.
This is probably a fair part of why there's talk of a busway towards Cambourne to alleviate the A1303 Madingley Road and make things at least a little more tolerable without encouraging more car use.
Back on topic, for unbuilt 4-ways, do the various past proposals for the Girton rebuild count?