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 would expect there to be dispensation for the vulnerable and this should definitely be the case.

'The vulnerable' is not always an easy to define concept (as you can see from this thread). Why should 'dispensations' be necessary? Everyone should be free to come and go as they please.

It's not a dictatorship, obviously, but given these schemes have already been implemented elsewhere, I don't think they need your buy-in or mine.

Did they need your vote for 20mph limits or pedestrian only zones? Or the ULEZ or congestion zones? How about banning sales of ICE vehicles in 2030?

We live within 10 minutes of our town centre and Aldi is also 10 mins walk, larger Sainsbury's is 15 mins, and smaller one 10 mins. We could get all our grocery shopping that way. DD is at school 5 mins walk and will be either at a secondary school 10-20 mins walk or will get the bus.

But my DS goes to a specialist school 15 mins drive away and both DCs go to after school activities that are a drive away (the swimming pool they both go to is 15 mins drive through town). They are proposing cutting off the town centre in the same kind of way - bus gates or just completely stopping traffic. The traffic will go along various rat runs alongside the city/through the countryside (there is no ring road).

It's all very well saying "but you can cycle places" but I can't cycle with DS to his school, it can get too icy for the DCs to cycle places in winter (never mind me!) and neither of them are 100% reliable cyclists on roads (and they are 8 and 10 - we have used a tandem/baby seat but they are beyond that now, but so are many 5 and 6 year olds who are even less reliable!).

I work in one of the hospitals. Access by car has always been problematic for both staff and patients, but the traffic into Headington has been noticeably worse the last few weeks as the other restrictions elsewhere have kicked in.

I live an hour away, I have no choice but to drive really as the P&R barely serves the hospital directly (I'd have to go into the city and out again on two buses, no thanks!) and the buses start too late/finish too early for many of my shifts.

Bear in mind this is a regional referral centre for many specialties, so patients come from long distances away, and public transport is just not an option for many. It can take them an hour just to park. But the council is completely opposed to doing anything to improve this.

I'm leaving at the end of January for a job much closer to home, and I doubt I'll be back in Oxford much after that.

Seems to me the right aim but the wrong methods. In part because national government is still too wedded to the car in planning and transport decisions. Local government can't end the unnecessary use of SUVs, the inadequate men in their BMWs, the lazy people who won't walk half a mile when perfectly able, for example.

It's not a dictatorship, obviously, but given these schemes have already been implemented elsewhere, I don't think they need your buy-in or mine.

Of course they do. What kind of world do you live in, North Korea.

Did they need your vote for 20mph limits or pedestrian only zones?

If the benefits of initiatives are cjear and they're well executed, people will go along with them. In this case, no, so expect dissent and protest.

@Lunar270 There is only dispensation for those with blue badges. In most cities getting a blue badge is not that easy any longer.

It's not a dictatorship, obviously, but given these schemes have already been implemented elsewhere, I don't think they need your buy-in or mine.

Did they need your vote for 20mph limits or pedestrian only zones? Or the ULEZ or congestion zones? How about banning sales of ICE vehicles in 2030?

Again, you are comparing this huge disruption to people's lives to reducing the speed limit to 20mph

Why does it matter if the scheme was implemented 'elsewhere'? This is the UK and people need to vote on decisions as critical as these

Engineer an emissions free mode of transport that doesn't cause the problems we face in cities and you'll be able to take it where you like.

You're already free to go where you want, just not in a car.

@Lunar270 you do know log burners are a significant contribution to air pollution? Banning them would make very little difference to people in cities and towns. And yet nothing has happened. Because it is always poor people who have to pay. As if our life is not tough enough at the moment,.

You're already free to go where you want, just not in a car.

This is quite an irritating statement. Do you realise this?

I lived there 30 years ago. Traffic was often gridlocked. Air quality especially where the buses were on corn market was appalling. Bikes did pretty well, for those that could use them, but we needed to get cars off the road to make that safer. Clearly nothing so far attempted has worked.

As the car becomes less sustainable, public transport looks better and can be better funded. At the moment many routes are unsustainable because of car use.

We won't all be able to live and work where we like. Perhaps we'll invest in better homes for older people, closer to services. Perhaps we'll stop forcing people into offices and meetings, when it's unnecessary.

I'd argue that making life harder for people with cars isn't actually disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. The most vulnerable are already restricted to using public transport, they are already limited in where they can go and when.

You could see it as a levelling process, as long as affluent areas aren't exempted.

well said.
reading this is scary. I don't live in oxford. but in a city that does daft stuff like this, my dc (adult) for instance can't use a bus(have seen the wheelchairs on buses threads) is a full time wheelchair user and very disabled.
without their WAV or suchlike they can't go out and about. what happens to people like them?

Such a solution already exists. The bicycle.

The management of such a scheme needs really joined up thinking. Last week I attempted to use the park and ride to enter the hallowed gates of Oxford. Of the all the ticketing machines only 1 was working for cash ALL the others were card only BUT would only work with an app. This was also not possible to download as there was no phone signal at the site!!

The machine was so poorly designed that I had to assist foreign visitors to use it.

The bus driver commented that if you “passed the ticketing exam you are now allowed to board the bus” 😆

@Samcro We are the same. My DD and DH could get on a bus. But they can't walk to a bus stop at both ends. My DH can walk about the house and very short distances, but a bit more than the 300 metres maximum needed for a blue badge holder. Anywhere we go such as out to eat, I drop them at the door and then go and park. We already do not go places where it is pedestrianised as we can't get there even in a taxi.
I am worried that as a family our lives are going to shrink more and more with initiatives like this.

I have been waiting for this thread.

If everyone else who didn't need to use a car as much as your dc used alternative transport, think how much better your journeys would be.

Orweillian

More conspiracy theories coming true.
None left to come true now?

I could bike the 12 miles to work. However I am not willing to take my life in my hands down the A40. There’s maybe 4 miles of bike line over the whole journey.

There’s also nowhere to shower at work, and sitting in my own sweat all day is not appealing at all.

Sorry I should've been more clear. Most people buy into these schemes or just don't bother to fill in forms or complain in person etc. What I've found is that consultations are not always well advertised unless campaigns highlight to the masses and drum up sufficient negativity.

If you're in the minority then it really doesn't matter what you think as it'll happen anyway, especially with the push to lower carbon, noise etc etc.

My feeling is that negative numbers are less significant, because most people see that change is required, hence they don't need your buy-in.

🤣🤣

I mentioned this on a previous thread about ULEZ in London

I am glad it is finally being discussed properly. Everyone who tried to warn about this when it first came up was labelled a tin foil hatter. They will roll them out across the UK. That was clear ages ago.

I'm in London and there were local protests about the LTNs last night apparently.

it's strange watching people realise stuff they were told at least two years ago, but dare I have a glimmer of hope that people will actually start taking it seriously now?

Really? I didn't know that.