Quickjump
THE PROMISE - AND THE PERFORMANCE
The Policy promised to make Oxford more attractive to residents, shoppers and visitors and to improve transport movements within the city.
The key elements of the Policy were to:
Create alternative provision to private cars by:
- Extending Park and Ride services
- Creating bus priority routes
- Encouraging bus operators to provide additional services
- Increasing facilities for cyclists
Deter car use by:
- Closing key routes across the city to cars
- Imposing new parking restrictions - reducing parking places, levying high charges and penalties
- Restricting car movements by constricting access, creating bottle neck junctions and diversionary routeing
- Punishing motorists by swingeing fines and deploying traffic wardens 8am - 10pm, seven days a week
Make the city more attractive to residents and visitors by:
- Improving the landscaping and paving within the city
- Pedestrianising the main shopping streets (although only Cornmarket immediately)
- Meeting government targets relating to cleaner air quality
- Ensuring better facilities for pedestrians and the disabled
The scheme has since been promoted as a great success and championed as a model for other local authorities.
BUT
Any local authority tempted to emulate Oxford should remember the warnings of its own Trading Standards Inspectors: "caveat emptor" - buyers beware!
THE PERFORMANCE
It would be tempting to echo the Chinese communist leader who, asked what he thought about the French revolution two hundred years earlier, opined that - "it was too soon to say."
But by its own criteria the strategy has been nowhere near as successful - or as coherent - as its supporters claim.
Promise 1
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| The closure of the High Street to daytime traffic using the main east west through route across the city would cut car use in the city centre |
| Performance |
| Use of the road is punishable by fines. Motorists who ignore the No Entry signs are prosecuted. Cameras have been installed. There are special police crackdowns to enforce the ban... |
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BUT
Many retailers in the street have seen their turnover plunge. Several long established businesses are closing.
The closure has also had serious knock on effects on businesses partly served by the High Street, including the famous Covered Market whose south side faces the High.
Major problems have been caused for a wide swathe of other businesses in the city. Collection and delivery costs have risen.
MEANWHILE overall traffic has been displaced not deterred, re-routeing itself through residential areas where congestion and pollution are now higher than before the introduction of the OTS.
The High, one of the most architecturally distinguished streets in Europe has been despoiled acquiring what one observer has called, "the threatening aspect of a de Chirico landscape". Together with neighbouring Oriel Square, this beautiful street with its gentle curve providing a succession of changing vistas, has been "buried in a clutter of signs, bollards, beacons and acid green tarmac - Oxford's official graffiti." See: Oxford Today, Hilary Issue 2001 p15
There have also been frequent complaints about buses travelling at excessive speed in this street.
The benefits to the city of this closure are unproven while the damage can be seen everywhere.
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Promise 2
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| The OTS would improve air quality in the city centre |
| Performance |
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The biggest pollutant in the city were diesel buses as cars had been banned from the main shopping street for many years before the introduction of OTS
Although there have been problems collecting reliable data, current evidence suggests that pollutants in the city centre itself have FALLEN...
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BUT
Despite the ban on cars this figure is still ABOVE recommended government guidelines.
More worryingly is the evidence that pollutants have been displaced and WORSENED in other quarters of the city.
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Promise 3
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| OTS would encourage alternative transport to cars |
| Performance |
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CYCLISTS
The OTS had a wider agenda than merely curbing car use. Many of its supporters believe that developing alternative modes of transport are socially worthwhile in combating global warming, improving health, and discouraging a couch potato life style. In Roger William's words they are "enlightened".
BUT
Despite the creation of new cycle lanes, priority boxes at traffic light junctions for cyclists, exemption from One Way street restrictions for cyclists, Cyclist numbers have NOT increased since 1991 but have remained at 11% of people visiting the city centre.
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PARK AND RIDE
The OTS promised a significant increase in Park and Ride facilities.
Latest figures suggest that three of the four sites (Thornhill to the east, Pear Tree to the north and Seacourt to the west) are busier, although figures relating to the use of Thornhill, the closest to London, are distorted by its popularity with London bound coach commuters.
The current Park and Ride capacity in the city now totals 3845.
BUT
Usage at a fourth site (Redbridge to the south) is BELOW 1999 levels, partly because of improved bus services from Abingdon.
Plans to open a controversial fifth site near the village of Kidlington to the north of Oxford have been delayed but should now open in the autumn of 2002.
The proposed expansion of the Thornhill site has also been delayed but, again, should take place this autumn.
Both of these expansions of the Park and Ride services were promised to be in place before the restrictions on cars were implemented.
The proposed expansion of the Seacourt site on the western edge of the city is now unlikely to go ahead following objections that it would be built on a local flood plain.
BUT
Notwithstanding the planning problems described above, it is unclear whether the city will see further Park and Ride facilities developed by the city council as the Green Party which forms part of Oxford's ruling coalition is opposed to any further expansion of these services on the grounds that Park and Ride sites themselves generate car use.
Reactions to Park and Ride within the city are mixed. Most businesses welcome its contribution to relieving commuter traffic
BUT
Many retailers have expressed concerns about the appeal and cost of Park and Ride to different groups.
Park and Ride is often thought time consuming and unsuitable by people wishing to make short visits to the city. It can also be inconvenient for shoppers carrying heavy or bulky purchases. Leading stores in the city have told that the County Council that they no longer stock items which cannot be carried away by shoppers, inadvertently adding to the appeal of out of town retailers.
Park and ride can also be inconvenient for people travelling outside conventional hours, particularly in the late evenings. Service regularity is cut after the peak period making it difficult for those who work in the city after 6.00 p.m. or who work shifts. Service frequency on Sundays and on Bank Holidays has also been criticised.
Following well publicised instances of widespread vandalism, break-ins and thefts at Park and Ride sites, a fixed security charge of 50p was introduced. This has recently been increased to 70p following shortfalls in the City Council's accounts. This increase has been criticised by businesses led by ROX.
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IMPROVED BUS SERVICES
New bus priority lanes have been introduced from some Park and Ride sites. However, not every main route into the city centre can be so adapted. The High Street has been made a virtual bus and taxi lane during daytime hours. The bus companies HAVE provided additional services and despite problems with driver recruitment and retention, services have IMPROVED since June 1999.
According to one operator passenger numbers have RISEN by 9% since 1999. Other operators have NOT made similar claims and some services have been REDUCED.
Various improvements in the overall service are still being sought - with the backing of ROX. These include the building of new bus shelters and the re-routeing of some services to provide more convenient stops in the city centre for bus travellers who currently find themselves on routes serving the "wrong side of town."
BUT
While in principle increased bus usage ought to reflect itself in higher footfall numbers and increased consumer spending in the city centre, the contrast between the claims of additional passengers and the actual reported footfall numbers of leading retailers in the city could not be greater.
Unfortunately, supporters of OTS have never provided precise data about passenger numbers by age, purpose of journey, spending patterns and income etc.
Anecdotally it seems that residents, in particular the growing student population in the city, are making better use of bus services while visitors from outside who previously shopped in Oxford are going elsewhere. Distinctions are necessary between stores which serve daytime populations - residents, workers, students - those who depend on a wider catchment group. Businesses catering for the latter are among the most badly affected. Unfortunately these include many of the smaller independent traders who contribute so much to Oxford's unique character and attraction.
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Promise 4
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| The closure of Broad Street would improve the visual appearance and public enjoyment of this famous street |
| Performance |
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Broad Street was closed to through traffic as part of the OTS. General car parking was banned, although some places were retained for disabled drivers and commercial deliveries. It has now been reopened
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BUT
The closure of the street had an immediately disastrous effect on those businesses with direct frontages and/or which depended on the street for customer parking and collection. Some colleges were also adversely affected. Letters from well known retailers read to the County Council's OTS Working Party and reported in the local press complained of crippling reductions in turnover. One enraged retailer subsequently challenged a rent review in the District Court and was awarded a 5% reduction because of the loss of customer parking to his business. Several long established businesses in this street have now been closed or sold.
Visually Broad Street had been vandalised. Comedian Rowan Atkinson likened the street to a car park without cars. Others have said that it resembled an unmade bed and observed that it had become as busy as a pauper's funeral.
Having closed the street, the politicians and planners who ordered the closure discovered that they insufficient funds to pay for any long term proposal to improve and enhance its appearance.
Following protests by ROX and other organisations, including colleges and 'Friends of Broad Street', the County Council agreed to spend £50,000 to make some changes to make it tidier and visually more attractive. Central parking (now 25 spaces) was also re-installed to bring back some custom to Broad Street, Turl Street and the Covered Market. While the recent changes have been welcomed by retailers and others, ROX will be seeking some amendments when the situation is reviewed later in 2002. The long term plans for Broad Street will take several years to come to fruition.
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Promise 5
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| Oxford would be terrific without traffic |
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Many businesses were initially persuaded to support the OTS in the belief that the pedestrianisation of the city centre would produce a better and safer shopping environment. Although these measures were not synonymous, supporters of the OTS argued that unless car use was curbed in the city, pedestrianisation would not be possible.
As a result Oxford's premier shopping street - Cornmarket - was finally fully pedestrianised as part of the OTS: before June 1999 only cars had been banned. The new restrictions also applied to buses and taxis.
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BUT
Nearly three years after the pedestrianisation of Cornmarket the street has still not been properly repaved or landscaped. A recent attempt to improve the street has proved to be a costly shambles with most of the new paving cracking up and subsiding with the council locked in talks with the contractors. Once agreement has been reached, there will be further disruption later this year as the new paving is properly laid.
Several retailers currently report disappointing trading results. In part this is due to the failure of the politicians and planners to commence improvement works as soon as the Street was pedestrianised but businesses have also suffered from the loss of affluent car borne shoppers visiting the city and a noticeable rise in the number of beggars and unauthorised street traders operating in this premier site.
The experience of other pedestrianised centres was ignored. No attempts were made to understand shopper flows within Oxford or differences between Oxford and other centres and what lessons could be learned. There seemed to be a naove belief that pedestrianisation by itself, and of itself, would bring discernible improvements to the city centre. Yet experiences from other towns suggest the reality is more complex. Shopping has to be attractive, car parking needs to be conveniently close, and cities or towns with circular layouts do better
At worst, pedestrianisation can create a two tier shopping experience with shoppers bunching in the pedestrianised zone and rarely venturing beyond.
Predictably in Oxford, businesses not in the pedestrianised zone or furthest from convenient car parks have suffered the highest and most prolonged shortfalls in trade. Within the last two years the city's retail "offer" has shrunk as several streets have almost been abandoned by retailers and colonised by coffee shops, restaurants and theme pubs, inevitably narrowing the city's appeal to shoppers from a wider catchment area.
Politicians and planners were less interested in managing the pedestrianisation of the city centre than in providing a cosmetic sweetener for their wider anti-car objectives.
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Promise 6
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| Tough parking restrictions would improve the city |
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Costs of parking in the city are now the highest in any UK provincial city. Sunday worshippers face £4 parking fees, anyone using an off street car park can pay as much as £17 a day; on-street parking charges are £3 for two hours. Parking wardens operate 8am to 10 p.m. seven days a week, including Sundays and Bank Holidays. Despite a reduction in the number of on-street parking bays, car park usage in the main Westgate Centre and other car parks has fallen by 2,000 per month since 1999 (Data provided with OTS Working Party agenda 2001). This has had a disastrous knock on effect on the income of the City Council.
Many shoppers see Oxford as too expensive and too restrictive. One hotelier publicly complained after witnessing tourists receiving parking fines on Boxing Day.
Neighbouring shopping centres like Cheltenham, Swindon, Banbury. Milton Keynes and Reading offer cheaper and more convenient parking. In nearby Witney, parking is free. Shoppers on the eastern side of the city say that it is cheaper for them to drive to London at weekends where parking is free than pay £17 a day to visit Oxford.
OTS has become Out of Town Shopping.
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WHAT NO ONE FORESAW
Any public policy is likely to have unforeseen effects. The OTS has proved no exception.
Among the wider issues now emerging are:
Traffic Costs. Before OTS a number of claims were made about the costs of traffic congestion with the implication that if the delays suffered by motorists could be avoided by inducing car owners to switch to improved public transport, such costs would be reduced.
But this analysis may have been too optimistic. Many businesses cannot operate by public transport. Many public services cannot function efficiently without car usage.
Re-routeing traffic around a city can be just as costly as any congestion, especially when the re-routing itself causes congestion albeit in different locations.
Oxford is now seeing an exodus of car dependent businesses from the city to new locations on its fringes. This in turn, increases the pressure on the public purse to upgrade rural road networks and intensifies development in traditional countryside areas, adding to suburban sprawl.
These costs MUST also be added to the costs of the OTS.
Hidden costs. Additional congestion, inconvenient re-routeing of traffic and higher parking costs/new restrictions have added to the costs of daily life in the city. Builders charge more; other costs are passed on to consumers. Most traffic needing access to the city centre, whether it is approaching from the north, east, south or west, is now forced through part of Park End Street, now infamously known as Station Junction. Perhaps it should be known as stationary Junction as increased congestion there is causing frustrating delays to all who have to use it!
Social changes. Like many cities Oxford is suffering from an inability to recruit key public service workers due to high house prices within the city and also because access to the city from neighbouring towns etc., has become increasingly difficult and expensive.
Private businesses also report growing problems with staff recruitment and retention.
Paradoxically, restraining car use may increase house prices within inner city areas and thus contribute to the very problems it claims to be tackling. Again restricting car ownership, particularly in poorer areas, by on-street parking bans, may damage job seeking by vulnerable groups. Why should only the better off who can afford houses with garages be allowed job mobility?
Ignoring the wider community. There seems an unstoppable trend to centralise key services. In Oxfordshire this includes concentrating health resources across several sites to the east of the city in Headington. These services are expected to provide specialist care for approximately one million people in three counties. Yet as part of the OTS, traffic access to the Headington area is being restricted. Politicians and planners have decided not to build a direct route to the main hospitals from the city's outer ring road. Traffic consultants are currently devising a "green" travel plan for this area focussing on cycle and pedestrian routes.
Elsewhere an entire range of public services are now being concentrated within Oxford while the OTS makes it increasingly difficult for people from outside the city to access these services.
