Cambridge used to be a market town with a University and an airport. Its public transport except in the town centre during the day is pretty poor and expensive. Quite a lot of us don't have time or inclination to travel by bicycle in all weathers. Getting around the area is possible by car except at the rush hour when it is indeed quite like London.
Planners are nuts because they keep building new settlements like Cambourne without proper mass transit systems and if those aren't built then your development needs to be incremental development at existing settlements with infrastructure that can also be improved incrementally.
There are many areas of Cambridge that would benefit from the bulldozer I agree!