Why does Cambridge have so many unusual road layouts?

With its Dutch-style roundabout, Copenhagen crossings and Cyclops junctions, Cambridge appears to be looking ahead with modern layouts designed to give priority to cyclists and pedestrians.

But do all these newfangled configurations work to promote sustainable travel?

The people who map out the roads in Cambridge have something of a dilemma.

"We have essentially a Glastonbury-worth of people coming in and out of the city every day, so trying to move that many people across the city is incredibly challenging," says Alex Beckett, chair of the highways and transport committee on Cambridgeshire County Council.

"If you look back over the last 100 years, Cambridge is now four times the size it was. A lot of the roads aren't designed for that."

"Designing corridors and managing the flow is quite a complicated business," adds Elisa Meschini, chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership.

"People always think traffic is other people - but traffic is yourself."

Josh Grantham, infrastructure campaigner with Camcycle, says Cambridge has "very historical roots, very constrained streets.

"We have this quiet street network doing so much heavy lifting."

To get more people out of their cars, the council looked to its cycle-friendly counterparts in Holland for inspiration.

In 2013, the authority received funding from the government's Cycle Safety Fund for a number of schemes, including a roundabout at Perne/Radegund Road with a central overrun strip to reduce the carriageway width and lower speeds.

Five years later - and less than a mile away - Royal HaskoningDHV was commissioned to create a roundabout that would go one stage further, providing cycle and pedestrian priority.

In 2020, the UK's first Dutch-style roundabout was born, adopted from standards advocated by the Dutch SWOV Road Safety Research Institute.

"The Dutch model is symbolised by segregation - the basic understanding that if you have higher volumes of cars, it is impossible to have safe cycling," says Mr Grantham.

"Looking at the hard data we've seen a 50% increase in the total amount of people cycling through the junction but we're still only seeing an emerging picture.

"Any junction of that size dealing with that much vehicle capacity is going to create a number of conflicts - but it is working, from a user perspective.

"But if you cycle in that part of town it is an isolated piece of infrastructure. You often have to behave like a car, then you get to the Dutch roundabout and you have to flick into bike mode."

"At its most basic element, it is working because more people are using it," says Beckett, a councillor.

"It is designed to feel more uneasy for drivers, so they slow down and take more care - that's deliberate."

But it is not just about prioritising cycling.

Linda Jones, of Cambridge Living Streets, says: "Investment in pedestrian infrastructure should get equal attention.

"Footways created for pedestrians when roads are restructured sometimes feel like an 'add on' rather than what they should be," she says.

"When making changes, it's the ideal opportunity to improve things for pedestrians, who should be the priority in line with the Highway Code's road user hierarchy."

To the north of the city, the stretch connecting Elizabeth Way to the Milton Interchange is also changing.

A Cyclops junction was installed in September as part of the wider £31.9m Milton Road Improvement Scheme - the second one in the city.

In Milton Road, gone are the pavement-buckling cherry trees, replaced by streamlined cycle lanes and new planting.

"Milton Road is a major corridor into Cambridge, it's also a residential road so there was this conflict between larger traffic and people," Meschini, another councillor, says.

The growth of Waterbeach - and the dualling of the A14 - pushed more traffic into this end of the city, but, she adds, "part of the many-faced dice is trying to get this corridor functioning".

"It's early days but I'm quite confident it will work."

The new configuration also incorporates 14 so-called Copenhagen crossings - at every junction feeding into Milton Road - where cyclists and pedestrians have right of way.

The "signalised" roundabout on the junction of Milton Road and Elizabeth Way - which has 36 separate traffic lights - was one of the last improvements completed on the scheme.

But Camcycle believes reprioritisation "needs both carrot and stick".

"The Cyclops junctions are more relatable for drivers," says Mr Grantham.

"It's all about providing that space and protection - the key element is making that safe right turn.

"The most efficient junctions, in terms of throughput, are the ones that are prioritised around public transport and high levels of walking and cycling.

"We're still squeezing people over two bridges, we don't utilise the ring [road] as much as we perhaps need to.

"There's a complacency. If you look at cities in Scandinavia, there's almost no top end to how far active travel can do heavy lifting and take the vast majority of transport needs.

"We're not doing enough."

It is a sentiment echoed by Living Streets.

"We are concerned that people walk less and drive more when streets feel less safe," says Linda Jones.

"Pedestrians and other road users need consistency and the difference between the types of junctions/roundabouts is not ideal in this respect.

"To some extent this reflects a continuing, wider conflict between 'keeping the traffic flowing' and 'prioritising walking and cycling as active travel' which is still to be fully resolved."

The group wants to see greater protection for residential streets from "rat run" traffic to support walking and wheeling, as well as a coordinated and regulated public transport system.

"We have one of the highest rates of active travel in the country - about a third of people cycle to work every day," says Beckett.

"The challenge for us is how we get all the people to work, study and to school in a way that is effective, safe and timely.

"We don't have a London underground system."

"We've got the right idea," Meschini says.

"We are enabling something really special that will benefit people locally."

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