Oxford - transport reduction at peak times

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

A trial scheme to reduce car traffic in central Oxford has drawn the ire of activists promoting conspiracy theories online. But why exactly?

Oxford residents may have been surprised when they opened their post boxes in the last week. "Hello Guinea Pig" said a leaflet delivered to many homes across the city.

It appeared to be decorated with the Oxford coat of arms, but instead of depicting an ox crossing a river at the centre, this version showed a guinea pig instead.

The leaflet, produced by activist group Not Our Future, criticises an Oxfordshire County Council scheme aimed at stopping local drivers from using busy city routes at peak times.

[MVR S&T]

Um sounds like a congestion charge type scheme, been doing that in London for a while now?

[CyclingSid]

Nothing more than the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, approved last year.

Has even had US conspiracy theorists saying it is part of a plan for world domination!

[froome]

Nothing more than the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, approved last year.

Has even had US conspiracy theorists saying it is part of a plan for world domination!

Personally I hope that low traffic neighbourhoods, in the sense of residential areas having little traffic moving through them, do dominate the world in the near future. 

[Ralph Ayres]

I particularly like the concept (if not the name - we don't really have neighbourhoods in this country do we?) of "15-minute neighbourhoods" with shops, healthcare and parks within a 15-minute walk of home, though that would mean reversing the trend of the last 50 years or more and won't be easy to achieve except by strong planning measures which may themselves provoke opposition.  A sensible carrot if it can be done, to go with the gentle flick of a traffic filter stick.

[Richard Fairhurst]

It is a bit more than LTNs^▸ (Low Traffic Neighbourhood) in residential areas, which are indeed already in place. The main routes across the city will be blocked by what are sometimes called "bus gates", but in this case will be ANPR cameras with a massive number of exemptions. So you won't be able to drive from (say) Botley Road through the city centre to Cowley Road, unless you qualify for one of the exemptions.

The intention is good but it's overly complex, and I wish they'd just gone for a simple congestion charge like London. But Oxford does have a bit of a "not invented here" tendency sometimes...