Riverside Cycling Routes

Oxford Civic Society's response to the County's consultation

26 August 2017

Oxfordshire County Council has some money to spend on cycling infrastructure and is proposing to spend some of it on and around the Thames towpath. They published some drawings and a Q&A document, inviting comments from interested parties. Our Transport Group rose to the challenge.

They cautiously welcomed the proposals, but pointed out that the County’s claim that the improvements would “improve pedestrian and cycle links between existing residential areas and the city centre and Oxford station [and] connect major city centre sites including Westgate, Oxpens and Osney Mead with some of the city’s largest residential areas” is just not true. As they say in their response, “the works proposed do nothing to improve connections from the towpath to the station or the city centre, and the route improvements certainly do not provide ‘traffic-free connections … through the city centre'”.

The County’s ‘Riverside Routes’ home page has links to all the documents and drawings, and the Society’s Transport Group’s response in full is here.