That the county is so notorious for its death and serious injury rates is
not surprising given the lack of a decent road infrastructure in the area.
Whilst the M11 cuts through the county from London, to just north of
Cambridge, the majority of roads are country roads purporting to be of a
higher standard than they are purely by the clever, but unwarranted,
pre-fixing of the letter A to their numeric designation.
These A Roads are nothing more than poor quality B Roads
twisting and turning across country and through small villages, with little
opportunity for safe overtaking and with the ever present danger of slow
moving farm machinery manoeuvring with little regard for other road users.
To add to the excitement of danger these roads already present; they are
also littered with numerous laybys where 40 foot articulated lorries await
the opportunity to pull out on their fast approaching prey without even
a cursory indication of their intentions.
The whole situation is compounded by a local population that seems to believe
that the indicator stalk was an optional extra fitted to their vehicle, which
they never asked for in the first place, and they'll be damned if they are
going to use it.
A large number of drivers also appear to believe that the accelerator pedal
is also an optional extra that may be broken if pressed too hard and that
the only safe speed is one that is at least 20 mph below the speed
limit in the vicinity.
So getting to Cambridge, if one survives, is an ordeal in itself, but, once
there, the car driver will be welcomed with open arms.
Well, no.
Cambridge is one of the most car unfriendly towns a driver can encounter.
True, some of the historical roads deep in the town centre are extremely
narrow and not suited to car travel but that does not explain Cambridge's
attitude to the rest of the town and its outlying suburbs.
Cambridge has taken an active stance in ridding itself of cars. There is a
well developed Park and Ride scheme which is just as well as nearly
all of Cambridge ( town centre and suburbs ) has been stained with double yellow
lines and other parking restrictions and there is precious little parking
in Cambridge itself. What there is has been so overpriced that it acts as a
deterrent to visiting in its own right.
Unfortunately the Park and Ride scheme is not that convenient when
one needs to drop into Cambridge, stop five minutes, pick something up and
leave. Especially as the Park and Ride pickup points are so far out
of town and I'm not sure about the frequency of service after 7pm.
So, by car, into Cambridge it is to be.
Getting to Cambridge is simple; follow the signs, however, central Cambridge
is a sprawling mess with a poorly defined town centre. Streets are unmarked,
directions are not clearly signposted ( only ways out from Cambridge are
generally listed ) and the one way system is so convoluted that it is almost
impossible to be travelling in the direction of one's intended destination.
Cambridge primarily consists of old buildings, far too many colleges and
universities that we can gawp at with some misplaced belief that this is the
home of academia, a quaint, open street, drainage system in parts ( well I hope
they're not open sewers ) and cyclists that are so intellectually absorbed in
their quest for pan-galactic knowledge that they haven't mastered the
basic principals of the highway code - a red traffic light means stop, a
car crossing on a green light will run you over; even if it is just
to be bloody minded.
For the car driver, it's a nightmare.
If you thought Road Rage was a bad thing; just wait until you get
City Rage.
Who in their right mind would put a fire station on the junction of a road
where it is impossible for the tenders to get out because of cars queuing
at the traffic lights ? Yes, Cambridge.
So if you have a car, it is better to avoid Cambridge altogether unless
you've just come for the Saturday shopping when the Park and Ride
scheme is the only course of action to take.
If you need to travel into Cambridge by car, then you have my sympathy. I'll
lay odds that you won't do it that often unless you live there and know the
road layout intimately or are travelling to the train station.
But once you have done Cambridge, if you have an worries, navigating
through central London at rush hour will be a doddle.
