Oxford 'climate lockdowns' and '15-minute city' - can anyone local explain their views on this?

[unsureatthispoint]

This news has been published in several media outlets and being talked about ATM.

Road blocks stopping most motorists from driving through Oxford city centre will divide the city into six "15 minute" neighbourhoods, a county council travel chief has said.

And he insisted the controversial plan would go ahead whether people liked it or not.

Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for travel and development strategy, explained the authority's traffic filter proposals in an interview in The Sunday Times.

He said the filters would turn Oxford into "a 15-minute city" with local services within a small walking radius.

Mr Enright said: "It is about making sure you have the community centre which has all of those essential needs, the bottle of milk, pharmacy, GP, schools which you need to have a 15-minute neighbourhood."

The aim is to reduce traffic in the city centre and make city living more pleasant, but critics say the plans will negatively affect businesses and the city centre's economy.

Here's the link

www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23073992.traffic-filters-will-divide-city-six-15-minute-neighbourhoods-agrees-highways-councillor/

Are local people aware of this and what's their take on it?

Holis just out of interest, what leisure and socialising do you expect me to do from home? For context, home is a small flat with a combined kitchen and lounge, no garden, and I have to move the table to do any stretching on the floor.

The people this affects most are in many cases not eligible to vote in those elections because — for the hundredth time — they live in villages around Oxford rather than Oxford itself. So even if these councillors campaigned on this platform they had no chance to object.
Many of us in these villages cannot take buses because there aren’t any, or the services are so infrequent that they are unsuitable for getting to and from jobs, particularly part time jobs that need to work with school drop off and pick up times. The same problem pertains to the (largely imaginary) park and ride options. The journey time (and expense) they will produce for people living in villages as little as three miles from the city will make working in the city impossible for anyone with children at school in their home villages.
You are full of smug comments and snarky remarks but what do you propose as a solution for working mothers who have been priced out of Oxford itself but who rely on the city for work?

Many people find it hard to use public transport. As an example, I’ve got a 2 year old and baby. Obviously disabled people do and should take priority for wheelchair spaces but that means that I risk having to get both children and stuff out of pram and fold pram / put baby in sling and hold onto toddler and stuff if there’s no space for the pram. It’s probably possible and I’m sure some do it but I would find it very stressful and not particularly safe plus I would hold up the bus. Or there might not be space on the bus and you’re left waiting with two young children for hours. The reality is that if I had to use public transport I’d rarely go out. I love walking and cycling but again you’re limited in how far you can go with the two of them and there’s no way I’d risk pulling them both on a bike so the world would become very small without a car.

The logistics of nursery run plus getting to work on time could also be difficult with this system. It’s easy to say have a nursery/ job closer to home but that’s not necessarily how people have set up their lives and often not possible to change. My job, like many, only exists in the centre of a few big cities.

Since I knew that there was consultation in May in Oxford for LTNs and that several local councillors in Oxford are keen supporters of them and I live 100s of miles away, I would hope that local people would care enough to know as well.

The sad reality is that most people ignore local government for almost all of the time, but then complain verciferously when local government consults and decides to do something they don't like, but didn't join in the consultation.

Surely if one is travelling from a village to a city centre one does not need to drive down residential streets anyway, so the introduction of traffic restrictions on residential streets is irrlevant.

You say 30% of people who live in Oxford do not have a car. I suspect the vast majority of these are students - young and mainly able bodied.

"If you’re going to do it properly, you need to invest in traffic calming and safe walking and cycling infrastructure rather than simply advising people that they might want to consider walking and cycling more. But, it’s not a question of banning cars." Rachel Lee, Living Streets

There you are, even the campaigner says that Oxford isn't doing it right. They're going all stick with no carrot.

One of these new bus gates will be on Marston Ferry Road between the two secondary schools which is predominantly not a residential area. It's often the least busy road I drive on in my journeys around the city at various times of day.

This is true of the LTNs (about which I have no opinion) but not the ‘bus gates’ or ‘traffic filters’ which will make it almost impossible for me to get to a central Oxford workplace by car. The same will be true for many, many residents of villages in Oxfordshire.

@TheKeatingFive

In my view it is simply no longer sustainable for either environmental or health (primarily covid) reasons to go back to 2019 with people driving and flying about all over the place, in and out of shops and bars constantly.

Many people including myself saw covid as a chance to re-evaluate and reset what we want from life. There is a real opportunity now to take some of those lessons and learn from them- so, more time at home with family, socialising virtually or as close to home as possible, shopping in the local neighbourhood, ordering takeaway instead of eating out.

Fuck. That.

I live on my own, and lockdown was desperately miserable.

Nonsultations are usually not publicised, intentionally.

It is often just pure chance you will see them, if you are lucky. The very nature of nonsultations has come up in our local council meetings.

hands up who filled in the Bank of England digital currency one? Or one about local bus routes, in any area?

i think some posters here work in local government so will be able to confirm.

Happening in Canterbury too:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11352725/Controversial-plans-stop-cars-travelling-neighbourhoods-Canterbury-press-ahead.html

I'm sure it will be implemented everywhere eventually, all about control.

Socialising virtually is not socialising. My family are 20 miles away, or 2 hours on public transport.

why are takeaways better than eating out? I don't do much of either but what is it you see as being "better"?

The other thing I would say is that there will always be exceptions to the above- the occasional visit to a favourite cafe or Aunt Meg who doesn't live in your neighbourhood. And the Oxford scheme will allow for these- people will be allowed out of their areas twice a week.

However, that should be the exception. The majority it needs should be able to be met locally and people should be at home or in their areas the majority of the time.

I do not want to socialise virtually, to only shop at the pound shop and heron foods locally, and to only ever get takeaway from the local kebab shop or dominoes.
This concept is based on rich neighbourhoods with their artisan bakeries and little Italian independent restaurant. Not on poorer neighbourhoods.
It will be like the 70s where most poor kids like me had very limited life experiences.

You sound like a famous video clip which I daren't link...about businesses who are dependent on high numbers of people not being able to continue.

this is why I lost my mind in 2020, it feels like the Holises and jgws of the world are the majority. And that's why they won't fight for their kids, they want the new world that's on the table.

i have no fight left.

And your vision of people only being allowed out of the area twice a week will not apply to the rich. They will be flying abroad as usual.

Who's not fighting for children?

Certainly the people who are determined that children should not have to live on streets full of cars and their children are fighting for a better future for their and other people's children.

You've not really been banned from going somewhere though - you'll be forced to use the ring road. It's not much different from a road layout change.

But if this is being done under the guise of reducing emissions, surely making people drive the long-way around will just increase traffic and pollution. I don't think it's got anything to do with climate - next comes CBDCs, digital IDs, social credit scores etc (all for your own good of course). None of these things have worked out very well for ordinary people in China...

Every one is'allowed' everywhere, just find different ways of doing it

I live in a village and commute to Oxford for work. I can’t WFH. I’d need to take two buses to work, taking over an hour, it takes me 15 mins to drive. I’m going to register as a taxi driver so I can continue to drive to work. The council are insane - the bus service in Oxford is appalling, unreliable and cripplingly expensive. Buses regularly don’t turn up or are full. If they sorted the public transport I’d be delighted to use it and not have to deal with the A34 but as it is, the buses are not useable.

Archibald, that's an odd link to make

@Holis sounds like living in prison to me. No thanks! Luckily I’m not British so I’ll be off to an EU country if the UK turns into 1984 😄

@antelopevalley

When my parents were young, travelling far afield was an occasional treat. Now people are constantly travelling about and in and out of restaurants miles away.

It's just not sustainable- there is absolutely no reason for people to be leaving their areas more than twice a week in most cases. Even that is generous.