£6 per family is about right for Park and Ride. £3 for adults, children are free. York is similar.

Cardiff only charge to park the car which is about £3, regardless of the number of passengers which is the cheapest I have found.

From my experience the places above all have very expensive city centre car parking so it is an incentive to use the P&R.

Where is does fall down is places like Leeds where the Council have failed in trying to encourage Park and Ride use. For two adults it is cheaper to park for 8 hours in the Council city centre car park than to pay for Park and Ride and as there are very few bus lanes from the P&R to the city centre you end up in the traffic you would be in getting to the car park.

RickyBoy, don't go telling people the best roads to park on. In future we'll potentially have further to walk.

Anywhere is nicer than MK for a day out, IMO.

And the guided busway is another hazard if you are really careless. Driving a car onto the busway, against the signs which ban cars, can lead to a Car Trap - also well signed. Must say I was impressed with the guided buses though as I recall the system has been much more expensive to set up than was expected.

The Cambridge Guided Busway (essentially buses acting as trams on dedicated roadways until they reach the city ring road-ish) and Park & Ride Services can vary significantly depending upon where you're coming from and going to - any trip right to the centre of the city (as opposed to, say, the Cineworld cinema complex near the train station [which isn't in the centre for non-locals in the BR]) means that the buses have to go through the heavily congested roads inside the inner ringroad.

The Busway is great for those from north of Cambridge visiting Addenbrooke's Hospital or the train station, as it goes unimpeded directly there, but from then on in, its back to busy roads, admittedly some with bus lanes (some on the main roads [where two lanes each way are possible] from the south and east, but no over the entire lengths, hence the long trips.

I'm relatively lucky living in Royston (only 15 miles SW and about 20 mins by train [+20min walk, or jig-jog bus ride to the city centre]) - I find outside of the rush hour, car is OK, and obviously required if you're buying lots of shopping, and better than the P&R. Rush hour, then it depends upon where you're coming from/going to - I would go by train (the train is about £6-£7 on weekdays, £4-£5 on weekends return) and walk in from the station.

It would be very difficult and very expensive to make Cambridge car friendly (if even possible), as with many medieval cities, they're obviously not designed for motorised transport, especially where the city is the main draw for shoppers and tourists for a large area.

In my view, the City Council should, barring access (people living in the city centre, certain [limited] commercial deliveries/pickups), ban all non-public transport/emergency services from inside the inner ring road, and further improve the bus/train services to help shoppers with large amounts of shopping use them (storage on buses is poor/very limited). This would include better provision of late evening services (many train services stop just after midnight) to cater for people going to evening events.