Dr Alison Hill, chair of campaign group Cyclox, gives her views on the latest plans for the Oxpens development and how they will affect cyclists.

On January 20 the Oxford Mail reported on the new multi-million pound plan for apartments, student accommodation, office space and a hotel at the currently dowdy, unloved, unattractive Oxpens site.

OXWED, the joint venture between Nuffield College and Oxford City Council submitted outline planning application for the site in January, and the consultation closed this week.

The site has been designed as a car-free development, with good public transport, and cycling and walking access.

We are grateful to OXWED who has involved Cyclox from the start of the project to ask our views on access for people on bikes to the site. We contributed ideas as the scheme evolved. This week we submitted our comments to the city council on the transport planning aspects of the development.

So, what are our comments? The first thing to say is that we are delighted that OXWED, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council have all prioritised walking, wheeling and cycling in the site’s transport plan.. The proposals include wide cycle lanes and a narrowing of the main carriageway along the Oxpens Road, a new Zebra crossing between the mini-roundabout at Osney Lane and the Westgate car park, a new mini-roundabout design at Osney Lane, and a junction redesign at the Westgate car park junction.

The designs can’t yet consider changes to traffic flows arising from the implementation of the Central Oxfordshire Travel Plan, in particular the traffic filters (the introduction of which will be substantially delayed by Network Rail’s plans for the Botley Road railway bridge). This means for now that our comments assume the current traffic flows continue.

But it also assumes that, with a suggested 3,000 employees on site, there will be many people accessing the site on foot and by bike at morning rush hour.

Given that there will be a lot of mixing of people on bikes and foot with motor traffic one of the most important changes must be to the speed of motor vehicles, to a maximum of 20mph. The other change we are asking for is traffic calming measures along the route so that the road feels safe to cross along its length.

We like the wide cycle lanes, but it may surprise you that we have asked for them to be narrower than the three-metre-wide ones planned, the reason being that we feel that the central carriageway at 4.5 metres wide is so narrow that drivers will encroach into the cycle lanes.

The Zebra crossing in the middle section of the road needs to be on a raised table level with footways and it needs to be much wider than the standard Zebra crossings around Oxford. An example of a wide crossing is the one outside County Hall at the top of Norfolk Street and this one could be even wider.

We don’t think that the mini-roundabout is safe for people cycling. Our test is whether a parent would take an eight year-old round that roundabout. We think they wouldn’t. Instead, we are suggesting that Oxpens Road merges into Hollybush Road, and Osney Lane should become a side road, with a continuous footpath and cycle lane across its entrance and Zebra crossings on either side of the junction.

The design of Westgate junction also fails our eight-year-old test. We are suggesting instead a ‘simultaneous green’ junction which gives people cycling and walking a combined dedicated green phase, while motor traffic is stopped in all directions. This allows people walking and cycling to traverse the junction in any direction, all at the same time. This would be a first for Oxford.

This isn’t the last word. There will be more opportunities to give your views, and Cyclox will continue to check whether the proposals pass the eight-year-old-with-parent test.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23328143.cyclists-oxford-get-ready-multi-million-pound-oxpens-scheme/

On 19/02/2023 02:38 pm, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> Dr Alison Hill, chair of campaign group Cyclox, gives her views on the latest plans for the Oxpens development and how they will affect fairy-cyclists.

Well, they'll be living in them, won't they?

There are various sorts of creatures who are kept in pens. Pigs spring
readily to mind. And why not fairy-cyclists too? Ideal, in fact. At
least they won't be on village greens, eh?
>
> On January 20 the Oxford Mail reported on the new multi-million pound plan for apartments, student accommodation, office space and a hotel at the currently dowdy, unloved, unattractive Oxpens site.
> OXWED, the joint venture between Nuffield College and Oxford City Council submitted outline planning application for the site in January, and the consultation closed this week.
>
> The site has been designed as a car-free development, with good public transport, and fairy-cycling and walking access.
>
> We are grateful to OXWED who has involved Fairy-Cyclox from the start of the project to ask our views on access for people on fairy-bikes to the site. We contributed ideas as the scheme evolved. This week we submitted our comments to the city council on the transport planning aspects of the development.
> So, what are our comments? The first thing to say is that we are delighted that OXWED, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council have all prioritised walking, wheeling and fairy-cycling in the site’s transport plan. The proposals include wide fairy-cycle lanes and a narrowing of the main carriageway along the Oxpens Road, a new Zebra crossing between the mini-roundabout at Osney Lane and the Westgate car park, a new mini-roundabout design at Osney Lane, and a junction redesign at the Westgate car park junction.
> The designs can’t yet consider changes to traffic flows arising from the implementation of the Central Oxfordshire Travel Plan, in particular the traffic filters (the introduction of which will be substantially delayed by Network Rail’s plans for the Botley Road railway bridge). This means for now that our comments assume the current traffic flows continue.
> But it also assumes that, with a suggested 3,000 employees on site, there will be many people accessing the site on foot and by fairy-bike at morning rush hour.

The creatures in the pens have to be fed, I suppose.
>
> Given that there will be a lot of mixing of people on fairy-bikes and foot with motor traffic one of the most important changes must be to the speed of motor vehicles, to a maximum of 20mph. The other change we are asking for is traffic calming measures along the route so that the road feels safe to cross along its length.
> We like the wide cycle lanes, but it may surprise you that we have asked for them to be narrower than the three-metre-wide ones planned, the reason being that we feel that the central carriageway at 4.5 metres wide is so narrow that drivers will encroach into the fairy-cycle lanes.
> The Zebra crossing in the middle section of the road needs to be on a raised table level with footways and it needs to be much wider than the standard Zebra crossings around Oxford.

Is that so that fairy-cyclists won't be quite so ready to shout
obscenities at pedestrians having the temerity to cross the road?

> An example of a wide crossing is the one outside County Hall at the top of Norfolk Street and this one could be even wider.
> We don’t think that the mini-roundabout is safe for people fairy-cycling. Our test is whether a parent would take an eight year-old round that roundabout. We think they wouldn’t. Instead, we are suggesting that Oxpens Road merges into Hollybush Road, and Osney Lane should become a side road, with a continuous footpath and fairy-cycle lane across its entrance and Zebra crossings on either side of the junction.
> The design of Westgate junction also fails our eight-year-old test.

Fairy-cyclists behave like eight-year-olds?

Good perspective, and it explains a lot about their petulant and
child-like behaviour.

> We are suggesting instead a ‘simultaneous green’ junction which gives people fairy-cycling and walking a combined dedicated green phase, while motor traffic is stopped in all directions. This allows people walking and fairy-cycling to traverse the junction in any direction, all at the same time. This would be a first for Oxford.
>
> This isn’t the last word.

No. One could not reasonably expect that it would be.

> There will be more opportunities to give your views, and Fairy-Cyclox will continue to check whether the proposals pass the eight-year-old-with-parent test.
>
> https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23328143.cyclists-oxford-get-ready-multi-million-pound-oxpens-scheme/
>

And who has come up with the 8yr old and parent test what a load of cr*p , Rupert and sprogs go elsewhere we don't want you in our city you are ruining it bloody do gooders!

Your "we", some kind of mpd you suffer from. Why should doing good be a bad thing. I think you need to lay down in a dark room with a cold towel on your forehead. Knowing it all has obviously taken its toll.

--------------------

NIMBY DOING WHAT NIMBY DOES.