Removing charges leads to greater use of P&R car parks!

The data wranglers at Smart Cambridge have been taking a look at the parking figures at the Park & Ride sites since charges were removed at the beginning of April. I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe, but usage has increased. Yes, really!

So far, the only site relevant to the Busway that they've investigated is Trumpington. The increase there is lower than at Babraham Road - as this Smart Cambridge post explains, this is because Trumpington operates at closer to maximum capacity for some of the time, so the scope for increased usage is diminished.

What the data cannot tell us - this could only be determined by a survey of vehicle users - is whether the additional parking results from drivers who would previously have carried on into the city (clearly a "good thing"), or from those who now undertake the first part of their journey by car or van, where previously it would have been entirely by public transport. If it were to be the latter, then - perversely - the removal of parking charges could actually have led to an increase in the number of vehicles driving into the Cambridge suburbs. But we have no way of knowing.

Route A additional services from 28 July

Although these proposals haven't yet been submitted to the Traffic Commissioners, there are changes afoot at the southern end of Route A.

From 28 July there will be new Busway A services to and from Trumpington Park and Ride

Two new services will run from the Park and Ride at 06:02 and 06:17, and there will also be a new bus route to and through the biomedical campus from Royston, also stopping at Melbourn, Shepreth, Foxton and Harston (separate to the existing 26 bus service which currently routes to the City). This new bus route will initially run hourly and will be an extension to the Busway A to/from Trumpington Park and Ride.

The new 08:03 Busway A service from Longstanton will now be a single-deck bus, which means it can travel all the way to the biomedical campus as opposed to terminating at Cambridge rail station. 

Cambridge Area Bus Users

The inaugural general meeting of  Cambridge Area Bus Users takes place on 2 June.at 14.00 in Cambridge Cemtral Library. It's open to all, but it seems from the announcement as though the organisers would like you to say if you're planning to attend (presumably so they have some idea of numbers).

More information on CABU Twitter: https://twitter.com/CBGbusUsers

Whippet "C" special offer and competition

Between 28 May and 3 June, Whippet is offering unlimited travel on Route C for £10, covering the whole week.

And they're also running a competition, linked to that promotion. So if you want to win a bottle of Jack Daniels...

The whole thing runs under a "Tenner C" label ("Tennessee" - geddit??).

More details here.

Another cyclist attacked

The Cambridge News has reported another attack on a cyclist on the bridleway/maintenance track, this time in the section between Addenbrooke's and Trumpington. The attack took place on April 30.

There was at least one previous attack on the southern section of the Busway - this blog reported on one in January.

UPDATE 4 May, 16.35: Another attack along the same stretch has just been reported. This time it involved a pedestrian, and in daylight. According to the Cambridge News report, the assailants were three men riding Ofo hire bikes.