Oxfordshire’s Local Transport and Connectivity Plan

With local authorities including York and North Yorkshire preparing new Local Transport Plans (LTPs), it’s useful to look at the work already done by another council which has made a good job of it.

Oxfordshire County Council has led the way not only in publishing an LTP in Summer 2022, but in its commitment to decarbonisation and active travel.

Oxfordshire calls its plan a Local Transport & Connectivity Plan (LTCP). This is what it says.

LTCP at a Glance

Oxfordshire identifies decarbonisation as a key overriding challenge. The council intends to deliver a Net Zero transport system that protects the environment and makes Oxfordshire a better place to live.

This means reducing the need to travel, discouraging private car use, and making walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choices.

Foreword

The Foreword sets out the challenge.

‘We have to fundamentally reconsider how people move around the county.

Current trends of private car use have contributed to congestion and public health issues across the county. In order to address these challenges, we have to reduce the need to travel and discourage individual private car use.

We plan to do this by making walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice…

We recognise that in order to deliver our aspirations there will be considerable challenges. Delivering our vision will not be easy and there will be some tough decisions around how we use existing road space.

However, the health of Oxfordshire residents and the protection of our environment is paramount. The benefits of this approach will be felt by all people today in terms of improved health, cleaner air and easier journeys. It will also help protect our environment for future generations’.

foreword to the oxfordshire ltcp

Introduction

The Introduction to the LTCP refers to the government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP).

The TDP said that LTPs would need to lay out how councils were going to deliver ambitious Quantifiable Carbon Reductions in line with carbon budgets and Net Zero.

The government was to publish LTP guidance (it hasn’t), and local transport funding was to be conditional on councils demonstrating how they would reduce transport emissions.

Oxfordshire’s LTCP Introduction acknowledges that previous attempts to reduce car use in the county have not been successful. There has been a 36% increase in vehicle miles travelled in Oxforshire since 1993.

This has created environments that are not welcoming places for people, and which negatively impact on biodiversity and air quality.

Its LTCP has been subjected to an Integrated Sustainability Appraisal, which ensures that it protects the environment and human health, and allows equal access for all residents.

Vision and Key Themes

The Vision is for a inclusive and safe Net Zero transport system.

It is supported by six Key Themes.

There are then headline targets based on the Vision and Key Themes. These are the targets for 2030.

One in four car trips is to be replaced or removed, and cycle trips are to increase from 600,000 to 1 million. KSIs are to go down by 50%.

There are further targets for 2040 and 2050.

Reducing the number and length of car journeys is critical to address the climate emergency, because technology alone will not deliver a Net Zero transport network, and cannot address issues such as congestion, physical inactivity and poor air quality.

The targets will be delivered by policies based on Avoid-Shift-Improve.

Policies

The LTCP explains that walking and cycling ‘will be central to delivering our Vision for travel in Oxfordshire’. Walking and cycling policies come first in the document.

There’s a Physical Activity Explainer, which says that:

• children should do at least an hour a day of physical activity and
• adults should accumulate at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week

The more time spent being physically active, the greater the health benefits. The gains are especially significant for those currently doing the lowest levels of activity.

To deliver those benefits, a new approach is needed which prioritises walking and cycling. That will be put into practice through a transport user hierarchy (policy 1).

The policies that follow are everything you would want to see in an LTP. They include:

• develop comprehensive walking and cycling networks (policy 2)
• develop and implement LCWIPs for the main urban settlements (policy 3)
• develop inter-town routes for utility cycling as part of a Strategic Active Travel Network (policy 4)
• develop a number of greenways as leisure routes (policy 6)
• use community activation measures to get people using the cycling and walking networks (policy 7)
• embed the Healthy Streets Approach into guidance and decision-making (policy 8)
• use Health Impact Assessments to assess transport policies, plans and schemes (policy 9)
• support the creation of safe streets through traffic measures like modal filters/LTNs (policy 10)
• work with schools and employers to develop a programme of walking and cycling measures and to educate about travel choices (policy 11)
• design new developments that prioritise walking and cycling (policy 12)
• apply the 20-minute neighbourhood concept (policy 13)
• embed LTCP place-shaping policies in land use and planning guidance (policy 14)
• adopt a Vision Zero approach to road safety (policy 15)
• promote 20mph as the default limit for residential areas and permit sign-only 20mph schemes regardless of existing speeds (policy 16)
• support the development of Park & Ride (policy 20)
• consider multi-modal travel as a central option in transport planning and planning (policy 22)
• support the development of mobility hubs (policy 23)
• follow the embodied carbon reduction hierarchy in decisions about transport infrastructure (policy 27)
• continue to implement the Zero Emission Zone in Oxford, and investigate Clean Air Zones and Zero Emission Zones for other parts of the county (policy 28)
• apply the Transport User Hierarchy to parking, and reduce and restrict car parking (policy 33)
• tackle pavement parking (policy 34)
• investigate demand management measures, which could include modal filters, LTNs, road user or congestion charging, workplace parking, and changes to the availability or price of parking (policy 35)
• adopt a ‘decide and provide’ approach to the county’s road network and only consider road capacity schemes as a last resort (policy 36)

‘We have found that road schemes often generate new demand and quickly reach capacity again. It is therefore not a sustainable long term solution for Oxfordshire’s transport network…[and] we have outlined a new approach to development of road schemes to ensure they contribute towards delivery of our Vision and do not reinforce traditional transport planning approaches’.

text from section of ltcp about network, parking and congestion management

As well as the LTCP there are supplementary documents including an Active Travel Strategy.