The Assembly members were selected at random by a process called ‘sortition’, following invitations to 10,000 addresses across the travel to work area.

The Greater Cambridge Citizens’ Assembly heard evidence from experts in transport, economics and environmental issues over two weekends in the autumn before casting votes on a series of potential measures to improve air quality and upgrade public transport services.

Involve, the charity which facilitated the citizens’ assembly, has today published a report outlining the recommendations, votes and key messages put forward by assembly members (PDF, 2MB). The GCP’s Executive Board will consider the findings outlined in the report in early 2020.

The 53 members of the Assembly were asked to set out what they wanted to see from future transport in Greater Cambridge, which was:

• - Affordable, fast and reliable public transport
• - Environmental and zero carbon transport
• - Restrict the city centre to only clean and electric vehicles
• - Be people centred – prioritising pedestrians and cyclist
• - Be managed as one coordinated system (e.g. Transport for Cambridge)
• - Enable interconnection (e.g. north/south/east/west/urban/rural)

Of the measures they considered, members voted most strongly in favour of road closures, followed by a series of road charging options – including a pollution charge, a flexible charge based on peak time travel and a clean air zone.

Assembly members also prioritised supporting measures to enhance the transport network and improve air quality.

Greater Cambridge Citizens' Assembly Full Report (2 MB, PDF)