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 think it's worse for pedestrians, tbh,

I wouldn't disagree.

Though we are now often feels worse as bikes go at fast speeds down hill on actual footpaths as they avoid the duel carriage way junctions for good reasons.

We are not car drivers - so our life is set up walking, DH biking and using public transport so we see the problems and for all the green talk I don't think anywhere we've lived is has been great TBH.

Sausagenbacon, i'd rather come across an arrogant cyclist than an arrogant driver, the latter is more lethal

That's fine. All I know is that it's really scary to be walking down the pavement and a cyclist comes from behind you, fast and without ringing their bell to let you know they are there, and passes really close.
Which has happened to me more than once. At least, as a pedestrian, I know that cars aren't going to be driving fast down the pavement .

How about forcing the big corporate companies to make changes in ingredients they use to produce food and cosmetics and their packaging?
Or making it a thing to offer people wellness packages at work? Or not increase the cost of living so much that people have to work and work until there’s no energy for wellness activities? Do you think someone after a 12 hour physical labour has the energy to walk home? Especially if they have to pick up kids/run errands/do groceries? Just a thought… It is about control not about getting people better and healthier or even the environment.

Did we frighten @DuncanEnright away? I’d love to know when he and his colleagues are going to release the results of the consultation.

I’m an Oxford resident without a car but I’m still against this ridiculous plan. I live on one of the roads that will suffer from increased fumes as a result of the bus gates pushing traffic from elsewhere in the city into our (poorer) neighbourhood. We’re already part of an air-quality monitoring scheme and levels are frequently above legal limits. Recordings are taken every month so it will be very easy to prove the negative impact of this scheme on air quality in this neighbourhood. My neighbours are already planning to take legal action against OCC for the increased risk to our children’s health that they will be causing.

This ill-conceived and self-defeating plan will only make the situation worse. It will simply displace the traffic and concentrate it in certain areas rather than decreasing car use.

My friend is in favour of the plan and works at OCC but even he fears that none of this will stand up to scrutiny if challenged legally (not least because there has been no meaningful consultation).

Did we frighten @DuncanEnright away? I’d love to know when he and his colleagues are going to release the results of the consultation.

I’m an Oxford resident who doesn’t drive but I’m still against this ridiculous plan. I live on one of the roads that will suffer from increased fumes as a result of the bus gates pushing traffic from elsewhere in the city into our (poorer) neighbourhood. We’re already part of an air-quality monitoring scheme and levels are frequently above legal limits. Recordings are taken every month so it will be very easy to prove the negative impact of this scheme on air quality in this neighbourhood. My neighbours are already planning to take legal action against OCC for the increased risk to our children’s health that they will be causing.

This ill-conceived and self-defeating plan will only make the situation worse. It will simply displace the traffic and concentrate it in certain areas rather than decreasing car use.

My friend is in favour of the plan and works at OCC but even he fears that none of this will stand up to scrutiny if challenged legally (not least because there has been no meaningful consultation).

Is there anything we can do? Like protesting about this before it’s too late? At least the closure of Botley Road has forced the council to delay but I fear it’s only a temporary reprieve. I have raised this with my MP and am planning to write to the Transport Secretary.

Duncan Enright lives in Witney, safe and sound, well away from any distress this will cause people in the affected areas.

Ahh Witney. One of those rare villages with excellent bus services (several buses every hour from early morning till late evening!) to Oxford. Also situated to the north of the city so drivers would be entering Oxford by road from Summertown where there are no bus gates planned. Looks like Witney residents will be unaffected by these proposals. Lucky old Duncan, eh?

Well quite. Though if you wish to use that line you might note that Witney isn't a village but a town and it isn't to the north of Oxford either (it's west). These things are more effective if they bear some relation to the facts.

Do visit Witney, it's a nice place; I mostly go shopping there rather than Oxford for all the reasons given already!

I have to say I was rather confused, as last time I visited Witney I felt sure I had cycled west from Oxford to a town.
I suppose it is important not to let facts get in the way of a good rant though.

Apologies — it’s north west. I’ve only ever travelled between the two places by bus. And since the S1 leaves Oxford north via the Woodstock or Banbury roads I always assumed Witney was, well, north of the city. Which it is…though also west. Either way, the point remains: if Duncan drives in he will do so from the north and this not need to worry about traffic gates. It is, by the way, a charming place and I especially like the Holly Bush pub there, though it’s been a few years. Hopefully the food is still as good!

The council have apparently been very upset about the abuse they have received because of discussion of these plans on social media! Obviously nobody should be abused but it seems they’ve been shocked by the strength of feeling. Maybe they should do some consultation and try to engage the public then?

This is a pretty disingenuous post, I think. If you have, in fact, cycled to Witney from Oxford I would guess you also went north out of Oxford and then cut west across the county after leaving the city. In which case, given that my point was about how road users get in and out of the city, you knew perfectly well that I wasn’t just having a rant without reference to the facts.

@Runaway1 They do the consultations, they just ignore the findings and do what they want. The LTNs being a prime and recent example

The S1 goes along Botley Road and doesn't go anywhere near North Oxford.

Also it's hardly a conspiracy on the part of Duncan Enright that Witney, a town of 30,000 people, has a regular bus service to Oxford.

Just checked. Sorry again — S2 not S1! Up the Woodstock Road. We used to live in North Oxford so that’s the one we got. And no one’s saying it’s a conspiracy that Witney has a bus service, for heaven’s sake. It would just be interesting to know how many of those making the decisions about where the bus gates etc will go will actually be affected by these changes.

For what it’s worth, when we moved we chose our village precisely because it has a bus service to Oxford as neither of us wanted to drive (I actually can’t yet). But the bus service has got a lot worse and we’ve had to buy a car just so we can get to work. I’m on mat leave now with my second and I don’t know how I’ll go back to work under these plans because of working hours/school pick up times/bus times and (in)reliability.

Yup, utterly disengenuous. Where i used to live in Oxford is pretty much due east of the parish church in Witney.
If you would like me to describe the route I took on the way out it was something like south, west, north west, south west, west, north west.

If someone were to travel in a straight line on a bearing of 280 degrees from the centre of Oxford they would arrive in Witney. Which is of course exactly what "Ahh Witney. (snip) Also situated to the north of the city" clearly means.

Ok, we’ve established that I’m bad at geography and was extrapolating from my memories of travelling out of the city to Witney via the northbound roads by bus. There are clearly other routes to Witney with which I am not familiar. The fact remains that Witney residents such as Mr Enright will not significantly suffer because of the bus gates. By contrast, those in villages much closer to Oxford to the south and east, which have poorer public transport links, will suffer significant difficulty in getting to work as a result of these changes. As previous posters have said, some, particularly women with caring responsibilities, may have to give up their jobs or move, possibly to the detriment of their school age children who may not wish to leave their friends. We do feel targeted, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wonder whether any of those who have made these decisions live in these areas or if they are all either in areas benefited or unaffected by the changes. Do you disagree with any of this? And do you have any sympathy with those of us facing these concerns, or (as other posters have noted) the fear that their homes will now be choked by even larger traffic flow because of rerouted vehicles? Or do we not matter for some reason? Is it only people on the smarter roads in Cowley that you care about?

The evidence from LTNs in other cities is that they reduce traffic on neighbouring roads.

So the answer is no, you don’t care. Thanks for being clear.

I think perhaps you have confused me with a different poster.

@Ohgodohgod , thank you for your comment - I couldn’t agree more. Have @DuncanEnright and others bothered to do an equality impact assessment on how these plans will negatively affect working mothers in particular? Women are a protected group and will be disproportionately impacted by this farcical initiative.

I’m the person living on one of the roads that will serve as one of the only remaining routes into town for cars. This ridiculous plan WILL further reduce our air quality as anybody who wants to drive to the Westgate will be forced to use our road. We already suffer from congestion and frequently have illegal levels of NOx emissions /particulates in the air our children are breathing. There was a case in London recently where a boy died from pollution caused by traffic fumes and I certainly hope that the council will be held accountable for any such appalling impact on Oxford children who are unfortunate enough to live on the few remaining “spokes” from the ring road.

The fact that the council is surprised at the strength of feeling on this issue is the perfect illustration of their total failure to engage with our communities - both inside Oxford and in the surrounding villages. This is NOT the way to win hearts and minds on the issue of reducing car use and we WILL remember their failure at the next council elections.