ONCE again, the Government plans new roads for Oxfordshire with the “really, it’s not a motorway” A34 expressway unveiled. The ridiculous claims made for this need to be examined carefully. 

They state that “there is expected to be around 40 per cent increase in travel demand by 2035”. Yet government figures show how car traffic has been almost static for the last 15 years. 2004 was the year when the UK recorded the highest total vehicle miles and the link between GDP and traffic miles is increasingly weak.

Their case includes the suggestion that without this residents of Bicester “will find it increasingly difficult to access opportunities” in Oxford. To say this as the new Bicester rail link to Oxford station opens next week shows just how one-sided and out of touch this report is. Out of 144 pages in it, just three and a bit are spent on discussing and rubbishing the rail links that run along the route.

The options include a new road “just to the west of Oxford”. Would that be via Wytham Woods or Eynsham? Or “just to the east”? Goodbye to the peace of the Garsington, Cuddesdon and the tiny River Thame.

The challenge for the A34 around Oxford is the clash of long-distance and commuter traffic. It is high time Oxfordshire tackled this problem in a rational manner. A new fast and frequent rapid rail service linking new developments at Bicester with Oxford and the science parks around Didcot would provide a new commuting infrastructure that links the county’s two big growth areas to each other and the city. Faster travel and cleaner air – why are we not planning now?

New roads simply generate more traffic. It is hard to think of a stupider way of wrecking Oxfordshire’s countryside – and our climate. Oxford needs a new road round it like it needs a new outbreak of the plague.

CHRIS CHURCH
Oxford Friends of the Earth