We should resurface Alfred St to make it safe and comfortable for cycling and put in a parallel crossing across High St, connecting Turl St and Alfred St. Combined with Blue Boar St, this would create a cycling route that allowed Carfax to be bypassed. The following map shows the proposed route, along with reported injuries between 2015 and 2024.
Alfred St has setts, but is ok to cycle on in those sections where the mortar between them is intact. (They are nothing like the cobblestones on Merton St.) Where the mortar has broken up or disappeared, there are wheel width gaps that make it rather dangerous for anyone cycling - and that are also a hazard to people walking and wheeling, who usually use the carriageway here because the footways are so narrow. Repointing the setts, and putting in new ones where utilities have left street scars, would also make Alfred St look much nicer.
A parallel crossing is not allowed to connect streets, but both Alfred and Turl Streets carry extremely small amounts of motor traffic, so we could try asking the Department for Transport for permission for this, or we could declare those routes to be cycle tracks which occasional motor vehicles can use. (This would be clearer if we had a standard colour for marking space for cycling.) Turl St is also a desire line for pedestrian movements, so a parallel crossing here would be well used by pedestrians, and could replace the signal crossing a little to the west.
This would create a north-south cycling route that bypasses Carfax and the section of High St between Turl St and Carfax, which have a terrible injury record and are hugely off-putting for people cycling. This would not create a fully accessible north-south route - turning right into Blue Boar St off St Aldates is problematic and the section of St Aldates south from Blue Boar St is mixed with too many buses - but it would be much safer than the existing route. It would also provide a fully accessible route from the north to Oriel, Christ Church and Merton colleges. (I once met a student at Oriel who said she didn't cycle because she was too scared to get across High St or St Aldates.)
