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?

I've only skim read this thread but if car movements are being tracked on ANPR expect the theft of numberplates to sky rocket and lots of innocent people to be fined.

This.
The powers be do it so well though. Look at energy Bill's as an example. Was going to triple for many, households were up on arms, Gov backed down and decided to only double it, so people were happy and accepted that.

Offer something so ridiculous that people kick off then offer an idea that would originally be impossible but now looks better so its accepted.

They are very good at dividing people and making the masses turn against others.

All very Animal Farm!

Are you always plucking words out of fresh air to try and make others posts sound dramatic?!

Where did I say I was worried? Why do you think I'm going to be utterly paranoid?

What a curious way to be, all because I expressed an opinion.

And all the villages are building more and more houses for people working in Oxford because Oxford isn’t able to expand any more. So more commuters trying to get in.

My daughter was wondering about commuting from us to the John Radcliffe to save money, but we told her not to consider it as the commute would kill her alongside long shifts.

Get used to it, there's much more of this incoming.

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

You do realise not everyone works from home or nearby, right?
Your vision of the future sounds fucking mince. Luckily we're still supposedly in a democracy so can at least push back against the crazy.

It sounds like they are aiming for something similar to what they have in Dutch cities like Utrecht. The idea is to make neighbourhoods more pleasant for walking and cycling as they are only used by true locals or people who are visiting locals rather than as cut throughs / rat runs.
It increases traffic in the short term but is shown to reduce to traffic overall as people walk and cycle more as it feels safer and is often quicker than driving out to the ring road, round the city and back in again.
This is still an option, it's not banned.
But a huge number of journeys are under 2 miles which is a distance most people can walk or cycle. Driving such short distances is bad for the environment and for people's health.

I speak from a very not up to date place, but I was using it as a bit of an example of the process working in that if you take something away then at least putting something in goes someway to mitigate that. Clearly they should be better and I just can't understand why councils aren't prepared to make public transport a no brainer by offering really extensive, frequent and cheap services.

But suggesting a scheme to get people less car dependent without offering any public transport increase is never, ever going to work!

@AbreathofFrenchair

What exactly is the issue with "confining people to smaller areas"? There is absolutely no need for people to be gallivanting around all over the place.

Yes, this! Exactly.

@Holis What sort of size area should we be confined to?
If say I can travel 100miles on foot in a day, am I welcome to explore all of that area?

How is it 'eroding freedoms' for people who don't rely on cars, kind of the opposite in fact

@Taswama I regularly drive a few miles. I drive to the supermarket and back. I am not walking 1.5 miles with a load of shopping bags. I also regularly nip to the cemetery to visit my parents grave. Again I am not spending over an hour round trip to walk 5 miles to pop into their grave. Cemeteries more local are full, we used the closest cemetery, but traditionally the cemetery would have been in the nearby church 5 minutes away.

Jesus wept!

Let's have loud speakers on drones patrolling the streets to keep everyone in line, like they do in China!

Incidentally, I think it's very decent of @DuncanEnright to come onto MN and offer to answer questions. It's also reassuring to know that the plans aren't set in stone, and that other options will be tried if these don't work.

Btw I'm looking forward to getting the sturdier bollards installed in East Oxford. The plastic ones have been a disaster. My son and his friends are always picking them up off the ground and reinserting them on their way to and from school.

Wouldn't it be lovely to live in neighbourhood where it was safe for children to walk to the local shops on their own without the fear of cars being driven recklessly down residential streets?

I'll gallivant as much as I want thanks. If anyone else wants to restrict their movements/move to China, they can knock themselves out.

What exactly is the issue with people travelling wherever and whenever they want to? There is absolutely no need to confine people to small areas.

Because it's not sustainable either environmentally or for health reasons @Archibaldleach.

What shops are they? Corner shops yes. But what houses are going to be knocked down to create these local shopping hubs?

Because it's not sustainable either environmentally or for health reasons

Health reasons = total bullshit

Lots of ways to make travel more environmentally friendly

Surely Holis is just winding people up. The point of climate change measures is not to confine people, it's to enable them to get around more freely while using greener methods of transport like walking and cycling and buses and so on.

Walk down Magdalen Road in east Oxford on a Saturday morning (one of the new LTN neighbourhoods) and you will see people socialising and walking in and out of shops and cafes. Different languages are being spoken and there's a real buzz; it feels like a European city.

Staying home is not the point.

That's up to you @antelopevalley and understandable, but not every journey of less than two miles involves carrying heavy bags.

The answer is to make sure local shops are good, local schools are good, people can work remotely if they can and public transport is good then travel will naturally reduce. You can't just force this on people and make life inconvenient and restrictive.

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