One of the questions that keeps coming up on social media is "why are there no Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in North Oxford?" Well in fact all of North Oxford consists of LTNs, with the exception only of Walton St - Kingston Rd, which carries too much motor traffic for a Low Traffic Neighbourhood. (Moreton Rd also carries too much motor traffic for a Low Traffic Neighbourhood, but it is classified as part of the B4495 so at least theoretically its problem is a lack of pedestrian crossings and cycling infrastructure rather than too much traffic — and it is not, in any event, a significant barrier to walking or cycling.)
The ubiquity of low traffic streets in north Oxford is, along with the Marston Ferry Rd cycle track, why 55% of the students at Cherwell cycle to school, giving it probably the highest cycling modal share of any school in the UK. The main roads in North Oxford remain hostile for cycling but there is workable (if bodged) cycle provision on key segments of them, which along with signal crossings provides continuous low-traffic (or off-road or bus lane) routes to Cherwell from its catchment areas, from Cutteslowe, from Wolvercote, from Walton Manor and from Marston.
There might be other reasons for putting traffic restrictions on the ladder streets, but it's hard to make a case that that they are necessary to enable walking and cycling. What North Oxford badly needs is the equivalent of East Oxford's Quickways - 20mph speed limits on Banbury and Woodstock Rds and the provision of coherent and continuous cycling infrastructure along them, along the lines of the plans produced for Woodstock Rd in 2021. And the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders to widen some ridiculously narrow paths.
Walton St remains a problem, which is why there is a Jericho LTN group advocating traffic reduction measures there (though that is in abeyance waiting on the traffic filters). And the residents of Moreton Rd would like it declassified and traffic reduction measures introduced (though my suspicion is that this is only likely to happen if necessary to accompany changes to the Banbury Rd - Marston Ferry Rd junction).
LTN in East Oxford has a different definition. It means LTN BARRIER WALL
that cars cannot drive through. It means people living on Magdalen road like I do cannot at any time drive along the length of their own road . This means it can now take four times as long to get to the JR and soon the only way to get there will be on the Ring Road which was designed for people to avoid Oxford, not for those who live in Oxford.
We need Low Traffic Neighbourhoods like North Oxford and Headington where all local people can use the back roads in a sensible slow manner with traffic calming measures in place. Magdalen Road was like this three years ago and has always had many types of traffic calming measures and was one way before the LTN BARRIER WALL was put in.
East Oxford is the only part of Oxford where local people have this LONG BARRIER LTN wall. Your article shows how it is possible to slow cars on back roads without blocking off the roads to local people. The people in East Oxford want what those in the rest of Oxford already have the chance to drive on all of their back roads in a slow calm manner. Not a BARRIER.
Itis an insult to the people who live in East Oxford to compare it with North Oxford. We in East Oxford have barriers you in North Oxford have calm slow roads that you can drive along instead of being shunted into the centre of Oxford” or onto the Ring Road.
Please can we in East Oxford have the traffic calming measures that are in North Oxford so that we can use our roads like they do to drive on slowly when we need to use our cars.
My family are lucky because we all love cycling including my five-year-old granddaughter. But now and then we need to use the car, especially when we are ill and need to get to the JR it visit friends.!We deserve to be able to use our cars on our roads just like those in North Oxford.
I would like a good explanation as to why it is so different in East and North Oxford.
If there was going to be a trial regarding creating a long barrier wall, it would have been better to do so in North Oxford where Banbury and Woodstock roads are wide enough to have a bus lane. Iffley and Cowley roads are narrower, the buses get caught in the traffic and cannot provide a sensible alternative.
Please remove the BARRIER WALL OF WOODEN BOXES in East Oxford and give us back our one- way streets and traffic calming measures just like your article rightly says exists in North Oxford.
"Low Traffic Neighbourhood" has a standard meaning involving streets having low levels of traffic, which is often achieved using modal filters to restrict motor traffic but can be achieved by other means (turn restrictions, one-way systems). So it's clear that large parts of Headington are not LTNs - and need measures to reduce traffic volumes - but almost all of West, North and East Oxford are now LTNs.
The main difference between North Oxford and East Oxford was traffic volumes. Almost all of North Oxford has been low traffic neighbourhoods forever, whereas many parts of East Oxford had side streets with much, much higher volumes of traffic. But that has changed and residents of East Oxford now get to enjoy the same benefits as those in North Oxford - quieter streets, less pollution, and safer and more accessible walking and cycling routes.
Any change to East Oxford that pushes inappropriate amounts of traffic onto side streets, destroys safe routes to schools and shops, and creates collision hotspots at minor road junctions would be incompatible with the county's policies (and would fail a road safety audit). If the problem is congestion, then the solution has to be measures to reduce private car use - the traffic filters, the Zero Emission Zone, the Workplace Parking Levy, maybe a congestion charge.