Roadworks doomy arrgh rant rant

[simont]

What is it with Cambridge being in a perpetual state of being dug up and rebuilt? I've been noticeably inconvenienced by three different sets of roadworks in the past two days, just driving to and from work and going shopping in town. Before that there were others, and others still before that. Some months I get the strong feeling that it must have been ten years since my daily experience of Cambridge didn't involve any roadworks at all, and even that was only because I was a town-centre-based student who never had to go more than five minutes' walk in any direction from Trinity.

Are all cities like this, and I only notice it with Cambridge because I move around it a lot and so deal regularly with a large proportion of the potential roadwork sites? I suppose that's possible, but it doesn't seem likely to me. It feels much more as if Cambridge in particular is so flimsy that it has to be being perpetually repaired or it would fall apart completely.

Comments

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Cambridge has quite a crappy road system for a city, so any significant roadworks seem more likely to have impact on a high number of road users.

For contrast, look at the Milton Keynes grid-road system, where people route around such inconveniences very easily.

I don't think Cambridge has much in the way of equal-cost alternative routes to most destinations, from my memories of driving and riding (a motorbike) there. There's usually only one obvious way to get somewhere.

[naath.livejournal.com]

From my knowledge of Cambridge there are generally zero good routes to take a car. It is part of the conspiracy to make everyone cycle.