Freiburg v Cambridge

[camflyer]

How long does that congestion last for - half an hour each time there's an event?

Half an hour is good. Often a lot longer. Sometimes takes over 30 mins just to get out of the carpark.

 

[jfowkes]

UK outside London is stuck with 4 decades of in- and between- mode pseudo-competition so the general public thinks urban public transport is complicated.

This is certainly true, at one point Nottingham had like 3 different smart cards that covered different subsets of the buses and trams. And Nottingham is one of the better cities in the UK for public transport.

 

[Magdalia]

This is the point. Freiburg is what Cambridge could be, with some vision, ambition and money.

When I first saw "The Case for Cambridge", I hoped for this.

But, looking at the evidence (and thanks to everyone for their contributions), those hopes are dashed.

Freiburg does not have the same constraints as Cambridge on street width and river crossings. Freiburg's tram network is at the core of the way it functions. That could not be replicated in Cambridge because Cambridge's streets are not wide enough for tram lines and there is a lack of suitable places for tram lines to cross the river. Those could only be rectified by destroying much of what makes Cambridge what it is.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Freiburg may have been heavily bombed, but unlike many German cities the core was rebuilt to the former pre-war plan with many of the buildings restored or rebuilt in the original style. Isn't the point that by restricting private car access in the centre you make way for street running tramways?
The best examples I know of this are in historic cities like Besançon in France or Gent in Belgium, whilst Amsterdam is progressively easing out the motor car from the centre.

I find some of the development around the station in Freiburg seriously ugly and off-putting - though it's functional, and there's a (nice inside at least) concert hall there too. But the rest of the centre is fine; and the extensive tram (and bus) network seems pretty efficient. And chunks of the Black Forest are a short train ride away... the main station sometimes seemed rather congested, suggesting well-patronised public transport!

NB - re Gent trams - yes - pretty good. Though a couple of months ago they reshuffled the routes, I think because some serious road repairs are needed, including all the service pipes etc, in a road in the centre. Luckily, there seem to have been enough "spare" tram tracks around the city not in regular use to run a completely different pattern of tram services instead (for at least the next year or two, it's said). However, for those of us used to the (well-patronised) route between the main station and one of the main central areas (Koernmarkt etc), arriving and finding that busy trunk route no longer has a public transport service [other than an apparently temporary one-way-only bus] was a bit of a downer. It's amazing how much one's ability to hold on to a "mental map" of a place relies on the public transport connections you're used to!