Strategic Active Travel Network Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) has finished consulting on the final draft of its Strategic Active Travel Network (SATN).
The SATN is described as ‘an optioneering exercise’. It has resulted in a report, a desire lines map, and an on-the-ground alignments map.
There are already Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) for some areas of the county, but the SATN covers the whole. county.
Aims and Objectives of the SATN
The SATN is inspired by OCC’s desire to effect a radical transformation in travel patterns, reducing trips by private car, and increasing active travel and the use of public transport.
The specific aims in OCC’s Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) are (see p10 of the SATN report):
- to remove or replace 1 in 4 current car trips by 2030
- to increase the number of cycle trips in Oxfordshire from 600,000 to 1 million per week by 2030
- to reduce road fatalities or life-changing injuries by 50% by 2030
The development of a SATN is identified in the LTCP as one of the means to achieve the LTCP’s goals.
Part of the aim of the SATN is to prioritise routes, which will then help to develop bids for funding for active travel schemes. In this way, it is similar to Harrogate District Cycle Action’s zone plan work, but in Oxfordshire the area covered is much larger.
Method
The consultants PJA took used the following steps as their method:
- Baseline Analysis
- Network Development (desire lines)
- Prioritisation using SATN Index scores
- Design Development, translating desire lines into on-the-ground alignments
Baseline Analysis
The report says that 16% of people commuting less than 5km already cycle – quite a good base. This drops when the distance is longer.
As a related point, there’s more cycling in urban areas than rural areas.
The baseline analysis looks at population density, local plan allocations, deprivation levels, current mode shares of active travel and public transport. Wallingford has an active travel mode share of 50-60%!
The analysis also takes account of the current active travel network, topography, collisions, severance points (e.g. the M40), Strava data, and the Propensity to Cycle Tool.
Network Development
The next step was to produce, then refine through engagement, a draft SATN network. It uses desire lines, i.e. straight lines not real routes.
Network Prioritisation
The straight line routes were then prioritised using a SATN Index.
Routes were scored based on the population on the route and within 2km of it, as well as train stations, strategic bus routes, key attraction sites and employment sites. There were scores for longer segments and for shorter sub-segments.
Design Development
Developing design recommendations is one of the next steps. This includes:
- on-the-ground alignments
- feasibility work
- detailed design, and eventually
- scheme construction
Some Reservations
This is a good project, but I have some reservations. They are largely based on my experience in North Yorkshire, and my strong impression is that in Oxfordshire they do not apply to the same extent.
So far, all that has been produced is a report with some nice graphics in it, and some maps. In itself, this is of no help to children who want to cycle to school, or adults wishing to ride to work.
The consultants are happy – they have been paid for their work, and they’ve lined up more work for themselves.
The council is happy – it has made it look as though it’s doing something.
No doubt a strategic plan is worth having, and even an essential precursor to building useful cycle routes. My concern is that publishing reports is the easy bit.
There are so many obstacles to translating the words on paper into on-the-ground improvements: among them are funding, consultations, objections from the inevitable anti-cycling lot, political will, and [lack of] project management skills of local authority officers.
It sometimes seems as though the distance from a glossy report to a physical cycle track is longer than that from Earth to Neptune.