Streets are changing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

New modal filters have been installed this week as the Greater Cambridge Partnership begins to implement its Covid-19 response projects. The changes are intended to give people more space for social distancing and to make walking and cycling safer during the pandemic.

The government is encouraging as many people as possible to choose active travel to free up space on public transport and the roads for those who really need it, and to boost the nation’s levels of physical and mental health. The message from the NHS is also for children to walk, cycle or scoot to school where they can when term starts again next week.

modal filter on Storeys Way protecting two children cycling
Changes on Storey’s Way have already improved safety on this popular cycle route.

The modal filters, which restrict some through motor traffic while allowing those walking and cycling to pass through, have been authorised using experimental traffic regulation orders and therefore the public consultation on these measures has now begun.

We’d like to thank the GCP and County Council officers for their work on these schemes which have already improved safety for those walking and cycling. Please write to share your thoughts too. It’s really important that as many people as possible tell them how the road changes are improving people’s lives and keeping communities safe.

Please e-mail both contactus@greatercambridge.org.uk and policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk and let them know that you support these road changes to help people walk and cycle safely during these difficult times.

modal filter on Carlyle Road and people walking in the street
A temporary modal filter on Carlyle Road helps people spread out safely in the street.

Schemes that have already been introduced include:

  • The Silver Street bus gate (only emergency vehicles, buses, cycles and taxis permitted) now applies at all times and on all days.
  • The Luard Road modal filter, to stop rat-running between Long Road and Hills Road, and to ensure Luard and Sedley Taylor Roads remain quiet and peaceful streets.
  • The Storey’s Way modal filter, to stop rat-running between Huntingdon Road and Madingley Road, and to protect busy cycle routes. Drivers should use either Eddington Avenue or Lady Margaret Road instead.
  • A number of changes in the New Town area to reduce rat-running and enable people to step off pavements and socially-distance more easily, including modal filters on Bateman Street, Coronation Street and Pemberton Terrace.
  • The Carlyle Road modal filter, to enable social distancing on a popular walking and cycling route to Jesus Green.
  • The Nightingale Avenue modal filter, to reduce rat-running and improve the safety of a busy cycle route to Addenbrooke’s hospital.
The Nightingale Avenue filter provides a safer route for those travelling to and from Addenbrooke’s.

We await details of the next tranche of projects which should include more work in Newtown, a set of safety measures in North Cambridge, a Cambourne to Cambridge cycle route and a variety of other schemes in places all across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to help improve active travel during the pandemic.