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?

The LTNs were not a tweak, they have caused a lot more congestion and delays. The OSPB had to change the pick up points as a result.

Additional plans are leading to the closing of the OSPB totally which will result in even more services per school rather than a shared scheme and more cars. Slow hand clap to you.

Thank you for responding @DuncanEnright . Yes, schools anywhere are a big focus for traffic. In my village cars parking for school pick ups and drop offs cause significant problems with traffic and road safety. Quite a few of the parents driving to the school are coming out of Oxford, as it happens, so it’s a two way issue. It seems a bit unreasonable that city residents will soon be in a position to drive freely to our village and use our facilities whilst we won’t be able to drive into the city to contribute to the local economy or earn money.
I’m not sure I’ve understood your response, though, to @jeaux90 ‘s urgent concern about the coach service. Whilst I appreciate that the service itself is ‘not a council thing’ since it serves private schools surely the council will want to work with the schools and the coach company to ensure that a service of this kind can continue? I’m not sure how making it impossible for a coach service to operate will improve traffic? I assume you would agree that looking at the impact of the planned changes on access to educational facilities and seeking mitigations and solutions where necessary would be ‘a council thing’.

Understood, thanks. We are working with the schools - but I should make it clear the current congestion isn’t to do with the proposed traffic filters because they aren’t being implemented for some time, the buses will be allowed through and it should go some way to improving access. Ditto for people outside the city, who most certainly WILL be allowed in! It should be less congested too - that’s the whole aim. I hope you agree we must do something to tackle the traffic situation and this is one of the ways we hope to make it easier, not harder, to get around. Park and Ride fares have been cut a lot, and the lower bus fares are also very welcome. In time I am working on a network of transport hubs that will enable much more frequent buses and other options (car clubs? car charging? Hire bikes, rail and school shuttles?) For too long councils haven’t done enough, and although some of the ideas will take time, and require a lot of explaining as change is never easy, our officers work hard and are brilliant. This isn’t just an Oxford thing of course, it is happening all over the world, but I am sure we need to act. Perhaps that’s why some have quoted me as saying “it will happen, definitely” - because we can’t go on like this. I’m very keen to hear ideas and experiences, so thanks to everyone who has contributed to the thread. Sorry I can’t reply to every one.

There's a difference. Seatbelts are a good idea.

Great, thanks for confirming you are working with the schools and listening to concerns. For my part — and having followed this thread closely it seems to me that a lot of people would agree on this — better communication about these plans would really help with acceptance, as would more specific engagement with genuine concerns. I appreciate that you and your team are pressed for time but the current information website is repetitive, unclear, and (I’m sorry to say) a little patronising.
You have this far not addressed the concerns expressed by several women on this thread that it will be impossible for them to meet school drop off and pick up times in their villages whilst also holding down a job in Oxford when these plans are implemented because their commute times will increase to such an extent that their working days will diminish unacceptably. I could offer myself as an example. Without wanting to go too much into specifics for privacy reasons I can tell you that my current commute to a job in central Oxford after school drop off would be around 20-30 minutes. Similar for home journey. So a round trip of 40-60 minutes. The buses to my village are not reliable and the times they travel mean they are not a viable solution. If I were to travel via the park and ride, taking into account time to drive, queue, park, board, travel on bus and walk to the office, my journey time would increase to around 75 minutes. Similar for getting home. That’s a round trip of 2.5 hours and would compress my working day well beyond the tolerance of any employer I’ve worked for. What advice or reassurance can you or your team offer women in my position? And are you concerned about the equality impact implications of this?
To be clear, I do not at all argue that Oxford needs to tackle its pollution and congestion problems. As I have said before on this thread I lived in the city for years before having children made it too expensive for us and I did not drive at all. I would prefer not to drive now! But what are my alternatives? Please do respond, whether here or elsewhere. Many of us are keen to do our bit to help the environment but genuinely believe we are staring job loss and financial difficulties in the face as a result of the plans.

Thanks for this, and apologies that the tone of official info on this comes across as patronising - the other danger councils face is sounding bureaucratic or making generalisations. Everyone’s situation is different (as you illustrate). Having said that, many people face similar situations to you, and these have been well represented in the feedback on plans across the county - the jargon for your situation is “trip chaining” - more than one destination in a journey. (We all do it, and I only came across this term a few weeks ago.)

If those who can use other modes of transport, like bus or lift sharing, do so (and they need to be reliable, convenient and affordable), it should mean there are fewer jams for us all.

No filters are proposed for the main routes in and out of the city; they are planned on cross-city routes. School buses will be allowed through without hindrance and should run much quicker. They will also be cameras and not physical barriers, so they can be suspended if there is a block on the main routes. We all know how things snarl up when water mains burst, or (as is imminent) a railway station is rebuilt.

The last thing I should add is that these are experimental schemes, so we can adjust and improve based on experience.

It is going to be a change for us all, but the aim is to make it work for everyone without those long timings you mention. Do keep in touch about this, via my council email if easier.

@DuncanEnright
Thanks for answering questions. The piece that I don't understand is how overall it will reduce congestion. It will just move it to the ring road. Not everyone wants to just use direct routes in but need to go across so this will force them on to the ring road which is dire now. I live in a village outside and commute in. I have no suitable bus available to use and live nowhere near a train line.
So long queues pumping out fumes . There are already long queues on the ring road at Marston that regularly queues on the ring road where it can't come off. Plus all the new building work etc

I need to use the ring road as otherwise I will need to use P&R and at least 3 buses to get to my office which is on the ring road further around Oxford. That just isn't doable or affordable. Our office is seriously thinking of moving or making everyone WFH. Whilst good for congestion, it will mean loss of local business, rates, use of local facilities etc

Lots of trade vehicles use the ring road, delivery vehicles too. This will impact those inside the ring road.

If the buses can move freely they will be a much more attractive (and cheaper) option for many. That will reduce overall traffic meaning that for people like you it will be less congested.

The Oxfordshire Guardian is much better. Plus less ads as can't even read most local newspapers these days without constant articles.

It's very scary and I worry that this is just the start. Perhaps in a few years time all towns will be divided up like this.
Once we lose our cash will our bank accounts be frozen till they decide we've learned our lesson, if we break the rules. We seem to be sleep walking into a dystopian world. 😲

@DuncanEnright there is current evidence this is untrue. The LTNs have already increased congestion.

Where is the evidence the future plans will decrease congestion and improve public transport?

Could you provide a link to the studies showing LTN increase congestion. All the ones I have read show that they reduce congestion and pollution on neighbouring streets.

@jgw1 - do you live in Oxford? I bet if you did you wouldn't be asking such a daft question! The LTNs have ground traffic to a halt in most of the east side of the city and the bus companies are reducing their services because they can't run to anything like a reliable timetable.

It's been a bit of a disaster really. Even super-enthusiast and responsible councillor @DuncanEnright has conceded that the LTNs need to be changed (he said "tweaked") a few posts above this one.

You can’t provide evidence of things that haven’t been tried of course, though the best modelling our expert officers can do suggest it will work - but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so it will be introduced as a trial, like the LTNs (no solid proof they have contributed to the always bad congestion tbh but they need to be better for everyone).

@AnotherOxonResident well said
@DuncanEnright evidence is right in front of you. The traffic is worse, the OSPB is halting its service summer 2023 because of it. It will increase traffic even more with parents driving in AND multiple "agile" solutions from the different schools in the form of alternatives.

You are gaslighting us. We all know it's worse like literally everyone who uses the area regularly.

“Expert officers”. Most likely told to produce data that their politics masters want! Everyone knows”evidence” can be tweaked to show what you want.

Businesses will lose out. DH and others already considering changing their golf club. Too difficult to get to now!

I have tried to find some objective facts and there is a study by Imperial suggesting that three LTNs in Central London reduced traffic in adjacent areas as well as in the LTNs. However clearly there is a lot more public transport available in Islington than Oxford so I would not extrapolate that the same will happen in Oxford. The Oxford LTNs were introduced only in 2022 so no data yet as far as I can see. There was a consultation on the Oxford LTNs which closed in November, I can’t see any results. I hope the bus partnership mentioned above fed back.

@DuncanEnright

My experience as someone who must drive through East Oxford is that my rush hour journey during uni term times is 50% longer since LTNs - ie I leave 50% more pollution behind because I am trapped in the traffic. If that's typical, the LTNs can only be a success if they have taken more than 33% of the cars off the road to compensate for this, which I suspect hasn't happened. (Mathematically 1 journey x 1.5 for added pollution x 0.66 remaining traffic to get back to 1).

Is there a means of monitoring to make sure that the LTNs aren't actually adding to climate change, as - let's say - 80% of the cars remaining on the road, each with its engine running 50% longer - generates more carbon emissions? Figures I've seen so far seem to based on averages across sensors (clearly a sensor in an LTN street will have dramatically less) rather than totals.

Obviously worrying if an attempt to reduce impact on climate actually worsens it?!

My rush hour journeys through East Oxford out of the city have doubled since the LTNs came in. I have the same concerns as you, @Oxfordmouse. I’m not sure measuring traffic and pollution in adjacent streets is robust enough to capture the whole picture.

The cross-city bus routes just don’t exist though. And the cycle provision is still very poor for many routes with good cycle paths, like on the Slade, hitting horrendous cycling conditions like Hollow way. Headley way has a really steep descent which spills onto a main road. That means you can’t safely take young kids by bike either. What alternatives are you expecting people with children to use?

More bus services will be possible if we can cut congestion. Understood though about cycle lanes - work in progress. Where are the priority spots for action? It won’t be possible for every journey to be replaced, though other routes such as by the ring road are available and will be smoother if some roads are quiet.

It's very scary and I worry that this is just the start. Perhaps in a few years time all towns will be divided up like this.
Once we lose our cash will our bank accounts be frozen till they decide we've learned our lesson, if we break the rules. We seem to be sleep walking into a dystopian world

Yes, and regarding cash, it is indeed very scary. It's everyone's responsibility to use cash whenever possible to make sure this doesn't happen IMO

Thanks to everyone who's posted, interesting but depressing at the same time

Yes, agree with both.

I was reading something by the anti-car lobby who think it's just "unfortunate that bus users as collateral damage". There's a new aim of Hackney being 75% car free roads. I just hope the objections buy us some time at least.

the gaslighting really annoys me. As the late great George Michael sang "you can move your mouth forever - but the words sound just the same".

it's just "unfortunate that bus users as collateral damage"

It's weird how it is apparently acceptable these days for humans to be 'collateral damage' of all sorts of decisions made higher up (by governments and large - mostly global- corporations)

What happened to human rights? Do people not matter any more? It's quite dark if you think about it really