Local News LTNs- good, bad( &/or ugly)?

Low Traffic Nieghborhoods

  • Good

    Votes: 4 14.8%

  • Bad

    Votes: 23 85.2%
  • Total voters
    27
Sarge

Sarge

God like member
Joined
6 Dec 2017
Messages
54,785
with the city council (Oxford) having already introduced a small zero emissions zone in Oxford ( intent being to expand it wider in the future), yet the county council( Oxfordshire ) have ploughed ahead, imposing a series of LTNs in the Cowley Rd, St Clements area- against the views of the majority of residents and business affected.

Residents have already removed bollards , several times, since these new LTNs went live- county council have repaired/ replaced them several times too

on the day the LTNs went live, Cowley Road, London Road, Marton Road and Iffley road were is ridiculously slow/ stationary gridlock particularly during the the late afternoon/ early evening rush hour.

This morning Cowley road ( similarly but not quite as bad- were /are the other main road arteries into the City)was near stationary mid to late morning!

Oxford City Council want zero emissions or at the very least reduced emmisions
Oxfordshire County Council , by imposing unwanted LTNS, are conversely seriously increasing air pollution and harmful emissions

Catalytic converters which are designed to cut out many harmful car/ van/ lorry etc exhaust emissions are totally ineffective below (around) 30mph, with traffic moving so slowly that vehicles are metaphorically leaving silvery trails in their wake, I wonder if Oxfordshire county council highways division really thought through their crusade to implement LTNs inside Oxford Ring Road? - especially given the chaos and increased air pollution they have already caused- in just 4 days!

A Local City Councillor isn't happy with the situation (in her constituency) .....

www.oxfordmail.co.uk

Councillor SLAMS LTNs as 'appalling' betrayal of public trust

An Oxford councillor has slammed how the East Oxford LTNs as an 'appalling' betrayal of public trust.
www.oxfordmail.co.uk www.oxfordmail.co.uk
 
I’m slightly divided on this.
I’m all for reducing pollution in towns and cities. But with the move to make all vehicles electric only a few years away, will it just become an unnecessary inconvenience?

If there are other benefits then fair enough.
 
The point of roads is that cars drive on them, seems a weird concept to start blocking them off at certain points, forcing more cars onto a smaller amount of roads. I drive around a lot of England and this seems fairly unique to Oxford, with even London using width restrictions instead to keep heavy goods vehicles on certain roads instead.
 
Oslernorth said:
I’m slightly divided on this.
I’m all for reducing pollution in towns and cities. But with the move to make all vehicles electric only a few years away, will it just become an unnecessary inconvenience?

If there are other benefits then fair enough.
Click to expand...

There appear to be benefits for the LTN area but equally it then concentrates all the traffic into other areas which then have all the problems, effectively transferred from the LTN from what I've read.

So like you divided, but this requires a joined up approach (routes and alternative transport options) for the whole of Oxford rather than a piecemeal approach that has happened. So on balance, at the moment I'm against but a better scheme/joined up approach could see me switch.
 
Last edited:
They definitely have their place, but they will only ever push the traffic elsewhere when there is no viable alternative. A real chicken and egg situation.

We live in a 20mph school zone which is created by using speed cushions, but we actually asked for an "LTN scheme".

Our street is just off a main arterial route but is 100% residential with no through traffic, yet a couple of roads away is a through route for folk going about their business.

An LTN would work for us but not for the through routes where the speed cushions just create as many problems as they solve.
 
The levels of air pollution on the boundary roads (the roads the traffic has been forced on by the LTNs) has already risen to illegal levels before the recent expansion. Whilst I applaud the general principle, randomly chucking down restrictions with no joined up, thought through plan is only ever going to displace traffic and lead to greater pollution for more people. Just hoping that people will get out of their cars without good alternative (given that buses in Oxford have been cut/re-routed recently reducing their availability) is idiotic. There has to be carrot as well as stick (and this isn't even proper stick, it is more like throwing sh*t and seeing what sticks). Also, rushing it through without giving notice to major mapping/satnav companies of the change (and they didn't) was also a recipe for disaster.
 
OCC have implemented these LTN's just a few days before a ONE month roadwork project at Marsh Road.

This morning, traffic was queued from The Swan traffic lights, all the way back past John Allan Centre, up Church Cowley Road. Also, from the mini roundabout on Barns Road/Between Towns Road back to BBL Bridge!

nightmare!
 
Oxford has been a round for a lot longer than the motorcar has. It's expansion in the 1930s was because of the the motorcar with the factory in Cowley building them. It's kind of ironic that all those 1930s build houses around Hollow Way and Florence Park are now subject (or soon to be in the future) to LTNs. It rather feels like a council decision to close Pandora's box. The car is here and, despite Oxford not being remotely designed for them, we have to live with them. The plans doesn't consider those who need to drive a car or van such as tradesmen, delivery drivers, social workers in the community etc. These aren't people who can jump on a bike or bus.

As @Essexyellows says, they move one problem and move it somewhere else. There's a ludicrous plan to consider a traffic filter for Marston Ferry Road not far from where my folks live. It would essentially send anyone going into north Oxford up the bypass. You'd have a car park on it. Madness ...

I sympathise with the green credentials behind this. We want people to leave the car behind more often and take public transport and walk/cycle. However, that can't be done for every journey. For a tightly packed city that struggles at the best of time with traffic issues, squeezing the rat runs even more will only make it worse. I'm not surprised that residents are taking options into their own hands.
 
Yeah I’m generally in favour of pedestrian areas and judicious traffic restrictions but this scheme seems to be funnelling all traffic into a couple of roads, making Iffley Road unusable for half the day. Epic bitching on the Nextdoor app! Why did I get that?
 
unification said:
Oxford has been a round for a lot longer than the motorcar has. It's expansion in the 1930s was because of the the motorcar with the factory in Cowley building them. It's kind of ironic that all those 1930s build houses around Hollow Way and Florence Park are now subject (or soon to be in the future) to LTNs. It rather feels like a council decision to close Pandora's box. The car is here and, despite Oxford not being remotely designed for them, we have to live with them. The plans doesn't consider those who need to drive a car or van such as tradesmen, delivery drivers, social workers in the community etc. These aren't people who can jump on a bike or bus.

As @Essexyellows says, they move one problem and move it somewhere else. There's a ludicrous plan to consider a traffic filter for Marston Ferry Road not far from where my folks live. It would essentially send anyone going into north Oxford up the bypass. You'd have a car park on it. Madness ...

I sympathise with the green credentials behind this. We want people to leave the car behind more often and take public transport and walk/cycle. However, that can't be done for every journey. For a tightly packed city that struggles at the best of time with traffic issues, squeezing the rat runs even more will only make it worse. I'm not surprised that residents are taking options into their own hands.
Click to expand...
theres normally delays and hold ups almost every day at Cutteslowe roundabout, already from Marston/ Headington direction
 
Last edited:
werthersoriginal said:
Yeah I’m generally in favour of pedestrian areas and judicious traffic restrictions but this scheme seems to be funnelling all traffic into a couple of roads, making Iffley Road unusable for half the day. Epic bitching on the Nextdoor app! Why did I get that?
Click to expand...
Yeah why did you get it? You usually do your bitching on here.
 
Annoying that a consultation showed 63% against but Bearder just roughshod it through and a couple of videos on FB today of drivers travelling away but the queues on the opposite side affected by the LTN’s were horrendous.
 
When will Oxford get a Workplace Parking Levy?
That's the next plan in Leicester, having made the City centre almost inaccessible by car for shopping etc they are now going after businesses and their employees who drive to work in the wider city.
If the employer has more than 11 parking spaces they get charged £550 per space and it is "optional" if the employer passes it on to the employee.
Schools, NHS etc are not exempt - and NHS staff already pay to park based on salary so MrsEY(Mk2) will potentially be stumping up over £1k a year to drive & park at work as public transport is not viable due to time & connections.
 
Essexyellows said:
When will Oxford get a Workplace Parking Levy?
That's the next plan in Leicester, having made the City centre almost inaccessible by car for shopping etc they are now going after businesses and their employees who drive to work in the wider city.
If the employer has more than 11 parking spaces they get charged £550 per space and it is "optional" if the employer passes it on to the employee.
Schools, NHS etc are not exempt - and NHS staff already pay to park based on salary so MrsEY(Mk2) will potentially be stumping up over £1k a year to drive & park at work as public transport is not viable due to time & connections.
Click to expand...
That’s disgusting
 
bazzer9461 said:
Annoying that a consultation showed 63% against but Bearder just roughshod it through and a couple of videos on FB today of drivers travelling away but the queues on the opposite side affected by the LTN’s were horrendous.
Click to expand...
he stepped down from highways/ traffic a week or so ago.. hes.in a new department for Ox city council now
 
Essexyellows said:
When will Oxford get a Workplace Parking Levy?
That's the next plan in Leicester, having made the City centre almost inaccessible by car for shopping etc they are now going after businesses and their employees who drive to work in the wider city.
If the employer has more than 11 parking spaces they get charged £550 per space and it is "optional" if the employer passes it on to the employee.
Schools, NHS etc are not exempt - and NHS staff already pay to park based on salary so MrsEY(Mk2) will potentially be stumping up over £1k a year to drive & park at work as public transport is not viable due to time & connections.
Click to expand...
think the small no emissions zone is facing the way ... its been spoken about , a lot!
 
Sarge said:
he stepped down from highways/ traffic a week or so ago.. hes.in a new department for Ox city council now
Click to expand...
I know but it was his doing this is his legacy..i wonder if Eastleigh have any LTN’s?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom