• Communities should be designed so people, from young to old, can live in and enjoy them without requiring a motorised vehicle.
• Create walkable neighbourhoods with daily needs within a 15-minute walk of people’s homes, for both existing and new developments.
• Work with communities and experts to make public and residential areas attractive and accessible for people walking, wheeling , cycling and playing, including ‘co-production’ approaches.
• Progressively remove the dangers of traffic collision, air pollution and noise pollution in places where people live, work and play, prioritising disadvantaged communities who suffer most from these impacts.
• New developments should help solve traffic problems, not create new ones.

Notes:

• Wheeling :  Wheeled equivalents to pedestrian mobilities, including wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs, mobility scooters, unpowered ‘push’ scooters and roller skates.
• Air pollution and road casualties are both caused more by people in higher socio-economic groups, and suffered more by people in lower socio-economic groups. See for example reports on:
  • Active Travel and Social Justice
  • Air pollution and deprivation; second report; third report
  • Road casualties and deprivation

Active travel: walking, wheeling and cycling should be prioritised for its inclusivity (physical and financial), health, community and environmental benefits. Investment should develop continuous, attractive and safe networks, so that walking, wheeling or cycling is a practical and safe option for everyone who wants to.

• Upgrade pavements to acceptable quality: eliminate trip hazards and obstructive clutter; prevent obstructive parking; widen pavements; add dropped kerbs and raised crossings where needed to aid pedestrian crossing; switch to Dutch-style entrance kerbs for new property entrances to avoid ‘rollercoaster pavements’.
• Improve Active Travel capabilities in the County Council and deliver higher quality schemes, aiming to achieve an Active Travel England Capability Rating of 3, which will boost the available funding.
• Produce a county-wide list of walking and cycling infrastructure improvements and pursue their implementation. This starts with schemes in Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) and the Strategic Active Travel Network (SATN) plan, through initial design and consultation to construction, using Government, developer and OCC funding to prioritise and move schemes through the list to create continuous networks.
• Complete LCWIPs for market towns and update the Oxford LCWIP.

Public transport should be accessible across the county, frequent, reliable and well-integrated between operators and with other modes of transport. In towns, this requires prioritisation of space, in rural areas some services may require support to make them viable. The potential is universal, affordable service where people can use time productively instead of being ‘stuck behind the wheel’.

• Invest in public transport, guided by the sustainable transport hierarchy (walking and wheeling, cycling, public transport, freight and shared transport (e.g. taxi), private vehicles.)
• Give public transport priority in investment and priority on the roads (e.g. bus gates, bus lanes, bus priority at junctions and financial support for routes) to improve timing and financial competitiveness with private vehicles.
• Ensure the user experience is positive when connecting between different public transport services and with other modes, including interchanges and ticketing.

Escalating traffic levels cause multiple harms to people, some short-term and visible like traffic jams and injuries from collisions, some less visible like toxic pollutants, climate damage and inequitable use of space. We need to retain the benefits of motor transport for those who most need it, but reduce its harms to people.

• Implement motor traffic reduction measures such as Traffic Filters, a Zero Emissions Zone (ZEZ) and a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) in Oxford, to free road space for buses and priority users such as emergency services, people with disabilities or medical/care needs requiring car travel and essential deliveries, and to enable higher levels of active travel.
• Implement appropriate local traffic calming or reduction (e.g. speed humps, school streets, turn restrictions, low traffic neighbourhoods) where residents suffer health problems or danger from cut-through (aka ‘rat-run’) traffic.
• Identify and implement measures to tackle the problems caused to people by the volume of traffic at other locations in the county, for example in some town centres, residential streets, shopping and employment centres.
• Add weight as a factor in a traffic management measure such as the ZEZ to discourage heavy and large vehicles, which are particularly harmful to people and road surfaces.
• Work with planning authorities to ensure that new developments are not car-dependent and do not create net increases in traffic on Oxfordshire roads.

No one should die or be seriously injured for the sake of someone else’s mobility. The Council should continue its commitment to ‘Vision Zero’, reducing road deaths and serious injuries towards zero by applying the internationally proven ‘Safe System’ approach, working with partners.

• Use road casualty data, predictive tools, local stakeholders and designers qualified in the Safe System approach to identify and redesign dangerous junctions and stretches of road, including those where the danger suppresses use. (Safe Roads)
• Continue to review speed limits to achieve Safe Speeds.
• Work with partners including Thames Valley Police and national Government to address Safe Users, Safe Vehicles and Post-collision Response.

From February to March 2025, independent specialist Mutual Gain facilitated a Citizens’ Assembly on Transport in Oxfordshire. 34 citizens, representative of the population of Oxfordshire, with input from experts and local businesses and residents, with access to information, and most importantly with time to discuss among themselves the implications of different actions or inaction.

They emerged with 20 recommendations, all supported by 70% of the Assembly and 16 supported by 80% of the Assembly members. These spanned improving public transport and active travel routes, creating a ‘car-free city centre’ to make it more attractive to visitors, and using an expanded Zero Emissions Zone, a Workplace Parking Levy and possibly a future Congestion Charge to restrict private car traffic and fund improvements. They also recommended a public communications programme  covering both ‘operational’ communication and explaining the need for and benefits of the changes that they were proposing.

An outline description of the Assembly and its Recommendations has been published, and the full report will follow after the election. 

CoHSAT broadly supports adoption of the Citizens’ Assembly’s Recommendations.