Traffic backs up along all the arterial routes throughout Cambridge during rush hour and busy shopping periods

JOURNEY times on Cambridge’s already heavily congested streets are set to increase - by 46 per cent over the next decade.

What now is a 10-minute drive in the city will take 14 minutes and 36 seconds by 2021.

This is according to modelling work carried out by Cambridgeshire County Council.

Unprecedented development in the Cambridge city area which has seen its population rise from 117,000 in 2008 to 125,000 last year have been blamed for the sharp spike in travel times.

And with the city’s population set to soar to 153,600 by 2021, highways bosses are reviewing ‘area corridor’ plans into Cambridge in a bid to reduce journey times – or at least stop them from getting worse.

With the main routes into Cambridge put into the spotlight, the purpose of the exercise is to encourage more contributions from developers to be directed to specific projects.

Transport officer at Cambridgeshire County Council, Peter Tod, said: “For any large development coming forward, developers will make a contribution.

“Recently we have seen schemes such as the Addenbrooke’s access road paid for by contributions from the city’s southern fringe development.

“But the plans are quite old now and it’s a good time to update them.”

Mr Tod warned that journey times in Cambridge would noticeably increase once the economy picks up.

“During economic downturns it seems people travel less as they have less money and fewer are working,” he said.

Cambridge city councillors say they are keen to contribute to the revised area corridor plans which were compiled in 2000.

Leader of the Labour group Cllr Lewis Herbert accused Cambridgeshire County Council - which has responsibility for the city’s roads – of not flagging up the realistic impact a new development would have on traffic flow when completing its highways assessment.

He said it was harder for Cambridge City Council to refuse planning permission on the grounds of traffic if the county council’s highways department had not highlighted any concerns.

“We’ve had a massive period of development in Cambridge over the last 10 years and I can only remember the county council saying the cb1 development will 
have a transport impact,” said 
Cllr Herbert.

“The biggest challenge Cambridge has is to sort out taking cars off the road and we need better public transport and new 
measures to get people out of 
their cars.

“The county council is sitting on millions of pounds of developer contributions and we don’t want it frittered away on road signs and minor projects.

“We have got people in comfortable cars with massive pain thresholds when it comes to sitting in queues coming into Cambridge from all directions in the morning.

“We need to double the number of park and rides and have far 
better bus services.”

Former Liberal Democrat spokesman for highways at Cambridgeshire County Council Cllr Kilian Bourke said the council’s decision to scrap bus subsidies in a bid to save £2.7 million would undoubtedly increase traffic.

“The county council needs to remain absolutely committed for a modal shift away from private vehicles,” he said.

“If you scrap 100 per cent of public funding for buses there is a modal shift in reverse.

“We need to look at all possible ways to improve rural access to the city.”

MP for Cambridge Julian Huppert said huge strides have been made in encouraging people out of their cars and onto alternative means of transport.

This is supported by the Cambridge Travel for Work 2011 survey published last month which revealed the number of people driving to work alone had fallen substantially from 47.5 per cent in 2001 to 39 per cent in 2011.

Meanwhile the number of people cycling to work rose from 22.1 per cent to 26 per cent in the same period and the number of bus passengers from 6.6 per cent to 7 per cent.

Dr Huppert said plans for a new station at Chesterton would be a huge bonus for the city giving people in the north an alternative to using the car.

“But no-one would deny that we have major congestion problems in the city and they are going to get worse,” he said.

“We need to continue pressing for the central Government funding that Cambridge needs to improve its transport infrastructure if it is to be able to cope with the demands for housing the Government is putting on it.”

Spokesman for Cambridge Cycling Campaign Robin Heydon said more has to be done to encourage cycling such as the provision of more cycle parking in residential developments as well as more city centre bike spaces.

He said: “It is proved that every time you build a road, traffic fills it.

“We move four times quicker than pedestrians can which is 
why cycling is a popular form of transport.”