London Road

London Road and Headington Roundabout bus lanes

TonyOX3

In two earlier posts here and here I wrote about the County Council’s initial proposals for what was going to be the third phase of improvements to the London Road, covering the stretch from Bury Knowle park to the A40 Green Road roundabout.

Following public consultation and general unhappiness with the proposals, and presumably under pressure to come up with as cheap a scheme as possible, the County has now put revised plans out to consultation. The consultation is announced and the scheme briefly described on the County’s website here. Comments need to be submitted by Thursday 25 July.

I have abbreviated the Council’s announcement as follows:

Several difference [sic] options have been considered but have been rejected either because of the small benefit to bus users, the cost of the works, the impact on footways and cycle facilities or the opposition of local residents.

The new scheme addresses these issues. The main elements are:

  • short length of new bus lane on the A40 right up to the roundabout,
  • short length of road widening on the London Road near the roundabout,
  • moving the first inbound bus stop closer to the roundabout,
  • lengthening the last outbound bus stop on the London Road.

This scheme has significant advantages over the earlier options:

  • large savings in journey times for inbound buses and coaches,
  • cheaper,
  • avoids losing the cycleway on the north side footway and minimises the impact on trees,
  • traffic is able to pass buses waiting at the relocated first inbound bus stop.

Both the new inbound bus stop and the extended outbound bus stop will be made long enough to hold two buses and will be designated as Bus Stop Clearways. This means that general traffic should not be parked at the bus stops and buses will be able to pull up against the kerb.

This project forms part of a wider package of measures to improve transport choices along this route, including the Thornhill P&R expansion, the Oxonbike cycle hire scheme and a new bus service linking Headington’s hospitals with Water Eaton and Thornhill, due to begin in late September.

Once approved, construction should take place between January and June 2014. This should be followed immediately by the reconstruction of the existing inbound bus lane between Gladstone Road and Wharton Road. A strategy for maintenance of the remaining lengths of London Road is currently being reviewed.

The technical drawing showing the proposed changes is available from the County’s website and I have copied it here. If like me you find it difficult to analyse papers like this on a computer screen you will be interested to know that there will be a drop-in consultation from 4pm to 8pm on Thursday 18th July at Headington Quarry Village Hall (Jubilee Room – entrance in Margaret Road). County officers will be there to explain the scheme and take your comments.

Headington Headlines #95

TonyOX3

As social media channels were obsessed with snow in and around Oxford, here’s my weekly round-up of local news for 14 – 20 January.

The priest and congregation of Russian Orthodox church St Nicholas The Wonderworker in Ferry Road, Marston held their annual blessing of the waters at Parsons’ Pleasure on the Cherwell on Saturday. Facebook picture.

More information came out about Oxford County Council’s proposals for the London Road Improvments Stage 3 which I wrote about after a public meeting last month. Note that it says the new scheme “delivers much greater benefits to buses and other traffic; it also minimises the impact on cyclists and pedestrians”. Cyclists and pedestrians bottom of the priority pile again then.

A woman was killed when her car skidded and overturned on the Northern bypass between Marston and Headington on Friday night (the night after the snowfall). Anyone with any further information is asked to contact the police.

Two separate accidents on Sunday evening closed the Eastern by-pass at Horspath Driftway between Headington and Littlemore.

Headington Quarry resident Dr Julia Gasper, who stood for the City Council elections last May as UKIP candidate for Quarry & Risinghurst has quit her position as Chair of the Oxford branch of UKIP. She was investigated by her party after posting “extremist and offensive” homophobic opinions on the UKIP online Members’ Forum. The Mirror newspaper broke the original story last Saturday and reports of her loss of office started appearing on Thursday. The story made The Marr Show on BBC1 on Sunday when Nigel Farage confirmed Dr Gasper “has resigned”. It seems she remains a member of the party, which Farage said “believes in free speech”.
The Marr Show on BBC iPlayer is on this link. Farage is introduced at 20’45”, the issue of remarks on the Members’ Forum starts at 25’00” and Gasper is discussed at 25’57”.

Active topics on the Headington & Marston e-democracy forum this week:

  • Eastern bypass resurfacing postponed
  • Empty shops in Headington
  • Osler Road junction
  • Church Bells in Ferry Rd, Marston
I try to cover news from the OX3 postcode in Headington and out as far as Barton, Sandhills and Risinghurst (see map). To feed into next week’s summary you can comment on this article, or tweet either with the hashtag #ox3 or @mentioning @TonyOX3.

London Road Improvements (2)

TonyOX3

After the public meeting organised by Cllr Roz Smith in December (see my report) the County transport planner has released more details of the revised scheme which will go out for consultation. You can read the statement on @RuthWilk’s website.

The key features are:

  • an inbound bus lane around the outside of the roundabout from the A40 into the A420 London Road as far as a relocated first bus stop.
  • no further inbound bus lane provided and the existing outbound bus lane unchanged.
  • limited road widening needed, but only for a short distance to the east of Northfield Road.

To my great disappointment there’s nothing about improving provision for cyclists or pedestrians along this stretch of the main road. The statement even says the scheme “minimises the impact on cyclists and pedestrians”. In other words, “we shan’t be doing anything for them”.

Cyclists on the cycle track on the north (Bury Knowle) side of the road have to weave their way past lamp-posts, road sign posts, trees and a bus stop. Westbound (inbound) cyclists have a choice of the busy road and then a bus lane or an unmarked shared pedestrian and cycle path again with a variety of obstacles.

It seems the growing movement to give higher priority to designing roads and streets with cycling in mind hasn’t got through to Oxfordshire transport planners yet. Which gives me the opportunity to share this article showing some innovative thinking about bicycles and bus stops (with thanks to @ParadiseOxford for the original link).