Smart Urbanism and the Rapid Growth of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is Europe’s largest site for biomedical and life science research. It is home to AstraZeneca’s Discovery Centre, a state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) facility costed at approximately one billion pounds, research centres belonging to Cancer Research UK, Abcam and Cambridge University and two hospitals, Royal Papworth (one of the worlds leading heart and lung hospitals) and Addenbrookes. On top of all of this, the site is still growing; in fact it is growing faster than ever.
For the surrounding communities, a central concern about the Campus’ expansion is the impact upon transport networks and the spectre of increased traffic and congestion. These concerns are not just felt within the local community, but at city level as well. The desire for enhance mobility across Cambridge was a key factor in the development of the ‘Greater Cambridge City Deal’, an approach to fostering city wide growth forged in the mid-2010s. This set out to secure “hundreds of millions of pounds of additional funding for investment in transport infrastructure to support high quality economic and housing growth over the coming decades”. This ‘deal’ is what would eventually birth the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP).
As the above quotation highlights, transportation and to a larger extent, mobility, has featured prominently in the city’s plans for accelerating growth. However, for the city (read GCP) enhancing mobility is not a city wide endeavour, but in reality is more strategic. According to the first document produced by the then titled ‘city deal’ team, in 2014
Greater Cambridge will undertake an ambitious programme to enhance transport capacity in the area. This capacity is needed along key strategic corridors to and from the city (particularly along those corridors where significant new housing or employment growth is planned) as well as within the built up areas of the city (emphasis added).
The focus has been on specific routes and roads within and around the city which funnel into sites and locales of ‘growth’. The GCP has argued that the ‘development of the sustainable transport network’ will emphasise the “need to strengthen the employment hubs and high tech clusters in Greater Cambridge by making movement between them more straightforward, efficient and convenient”. Hills Road is a core thoroughfare within Cambridge, linking the city centre at one end with Addenbrookes Hospital and the Biomedical Campus at the other, and as such a key route serving city growth.
One of the key elements of the GCP’s approach to enhancing mobility within the city is the pursuit of ‘smart’ urbanism via its ‘Smart Cambridge’ project. Smart urbanism, often referred to as ‘smart cities’, revolves around the collection and use of data which is produced by ‘sensing’ the city; for example the use of particulate matter sensors to ascertain the air quality of a given locale, or as is in this case, the counting and analysis of traffic flows, with the intention of using this insight to alleviate congestion.
According to Connecting Cambridgeshire, Smart Cambridge seeks to utilise “advanced data techniques, sensor technology and digital connectivity [to create] opportunities to support the sustainable growth of local economies, create better places and to help address some of the significant challenges of our time, such as moving towards net zero, climate change mitigation and adaptation and the reduction in transport congestion and air pollution” (Emphasis Added). This endeavour is based upon a range of different initiatives and projects, ranging from a ‘smart transportation’ app (MotionMap), digital wayfinding screens and, perhaps most notably given its national exposure, the UKs first passenger trials of autonomous public transport. One example of this is a trial called ‘Smart Signals’ — an endeavour which is somewhat hiding in plain sight.
For anyone who has driven, cycled, walked or e-scooted along Hills Road would have seen the Smart Signals project, however the sensors and cameras which underpin its functioning would have, most likely, escaped attention. For, in the words of author Adam Greenfield, “the average pedestrian is at best only liminally aware of the presence or operation of [smart city] sensors. From the sidewalk, they appear as a retrofitted profusion of little-noticed and more or less inexplicable pods on facades and lampposts”. As can be seen with the below image, the mechanics of the project, protruding from the traffic light, somewhat blend into the everyday furniture of the urban realm. The junctions selected can also be seen below and are of note given their proximity to the Biomedical Campus.
According to the project itself
“the intelligent sensors are capable of classifying and counting multiple types of road users, using an algorithm to process this information and feed it into the traffic signal controller to improve responses to changing traffic flows. Amongst other objectives, the trial will look to understand the ability of such a solution to prioritise and reduce delays for various sustainable modes of transport at individual or multiple junctions, and how traffic flow through junctions can be improved”
This is a significant change in how traffic management is conducted within the city, for, unbeknownst to those driving on and walking by these newly created ‘smart’ junctions, they are being controlled by artificial intelligence, acting upon large data sets created by the sensing of the junction itself. Simply put, the cameras and sensors protruding from the traffic lights at the below locations, have enabled the junction to learn how the traffic flows through those spaces, and reflexively control the signal timings, in the name of easing congestion and increasing traffic flows.
Now, what is of interest here is the physical placement of the sensors and thus project, as well the influence of the campus expanding beyond its physical confines. The Hills Road area is, relatively speaking, an affluent part of the city, therefore, one could argue that the benefits of having ‘smart’ signals is benefiting wealthier residents at the expense of those who are not — a common critique of smart city projects. For there is heavy traffic in and around more ‘deprived’ areas of the city — such as Abbey or King’s Hedges — so why isn’t the trial taking place there?
An answer to this lies within the observation made at the start of this post, namely the pursuit of growth. For, the purpose of this project, and more generally the entirety of the GCP’s endeavours, exists to not directly benefit residents, but instead, enhance the growth of the Greater Cambridge area. Therefore, the ‘Smart Signals’ project shares in, and is a manifestation of, the same, growth based logic underpinning the expansion of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
Ultimately, the foundational importance of focusing upon the ‘strategic corridors’, which serve locales of ‘significant growth’ to ease movement between and towards them is manifested vis-a-vis the smart signals trial on Hills Road. The trialling of these smart signals and the enhancement of traffic flow or the reduction of congestion are not end goals in and of themselves, but are rather a means to an end — that of enhanced growth. Therefore, the location of the Smart Signals project is a subtle reference to the city wide importance and, in a sense, privileging of the Biomedical Campus development as a site of growth; at least within the worldview of the Greater Cambridge Partnership and city authorities more generally.
By Will Brown
Taken from A Sense of Place, a research project concerning the impact of the Campus’ expansion on the communities which surround it.
Contact: w.brown@lboro.ac.uk
