PUBLIC SUPPORT VITAL FOR ROAD REALLOCATION SCHEMES

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats, who, along with all other parties, supported the pop up schemes at County Highways and Transport Committee this week, release a statement on how these schemes should be rolled out.

Importantly, they stress the need to gain public trust in order for experimental measures to be understood.

As Liberal Democrats, we've long campaigned for more active travel, and more use of experimental traffic orders, including through Council motions.

As Liberal Democrats, we also argue again and again for taking communities with us, and learning from best practice in other areas.

Experimental implementation around the world relies on three basic principles:

1) Sound data collection and monitoring, including agreeing success/failure criteria
2) Up front consultation with communities
3) Flexibility in responding to on-the-ground issues

We have the means to do 3), and as we said at committee, we need more detail around 1). 

We understand the difficulty that the Government timescales create over 2); that said, we are concerned that even experimental concepts, implemented with limited planning and support, will result in not just failures of execution, but of popularity and success, and of loss of public trust - making future investment in walking and cycling much less likely.

We believe the urgency should be to run those trial proposals where there is already some evidence of Councillor and/or public support, and ensure that feeding back on those schemes is easy and convenient for the public, and in particular special consideration is given to the needs of vulnerable groups, particularly those with disabilities.