Government approach to local authority road measures

[Chris Bertram]

The report states that LTNs have ‘directly caused bus services across the bulk of Oxford to become substantially slower, even less reliable, and as a result have further substantially reduced bus patronage and mileage

They argue that the damage to bus services exceeds that experienced by any other mode of transport, ‘including, perversely, private car use’, and conclude that the LTN scheme has been ‘a failure in almost all respects, including in its own terms’.

https://www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/Bus- ... lure/13548

The result of this is that the council are looking at "tinkering" as obviously it can't be admitted that these things don't work.

They look nice plantpots though.

Ha! The planters installed in our local LTN have mostly degenerated into ugly boxes of weeds.

[FosseWay]

^^ I read the article above, hoping it would give details of how/why the LTNs are causing problems for buses, but there was unfortunately no detail. I have no idea whether the LTNs are wholly or partly to blame here; I'm not casting aspersions on the bus companies or the article itself. But in order for sensible remedies to be applied, we need details of which parts of the new schemes are causing the problems, why, and what practically can be done about it while trying to maintain the benefits created by the LTNs. As it is, the article just perpetuates the black-and-white "LTNs good" vs "LTNs bad" conflict.

One thing though - I entirely fail to see why implementation or modification of LTNs in east Oxford should in any way be contingent on work going on at the railway station, which is on the west side of the city.

[aj444]

There is some somewhere,
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23852 ... mendation/

I did find a freedom of information request about the LTN's, which contains this truly masterful summary of the successes of the scheme as presented at the local bus operators group.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... sthrough=1

[aj444]

The bus used to take 11 mins now it takes 45

times link (paywall)

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bus- ... -bt9b35gwt

[Bryn666]

The bus used to take 11 mins now it takes 45

times link (paywall)

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bus- ... -bt9b35gwt

Sounds like the answer is bus priority measures then on the major roads to make using the bus more attractive than sitting in a traffic jam?

Advocates for more car dependency will of course say that speeding up buses is a form of communist oppression and part of the WEF conspiracy to deprive people of their precious metal boxes though.

[jnty]

^^ I read the article above, hoping it would give details of how/why the LTNs are causing problems for buses, but there was unfortunately no detail. I have no idea whether the LTNs are wholly or partly to blame here; I'm not casting aspersions on the bus companies or the article itself. But in order for sensible remedies to be applied, we need details of which parts of the new schemes are causing the problems, why, and what practically can be done about it while trying to maintain the benefits created by the LTNs. As it is, the article just perpetuates the black-and-white "LTNs good" vs "LTNs bad" conflict.

One thing though - I entirely fail to see why implementation or modification of LTNs in east Oxford should in any way be contingent on work going on at the railway station, which is on the west side of the city.

I can't imagine having a key bus (and car) route severed by the bridge works - especially one that goes to a park and ride - is helping matters either way.

Bus reliability seems to be collapsing all over the place. I would imagine it's a combination of post-pandemic car use (which causes a vicious cycle of decline in a few ways as buses become less reliable, are less patronised, then get cut back, which causes more car use etc etc) and political timidity about delivering proper bus priority to counteract this effect. Local interventions will get the blame - and may be due some of it - but there's a lot of structural causes too which transcend a few planters.