AS OxVox continues to support Oxford United's efforts to gain approval for The Triangle stadium, transport and traffic management, and the target for a massive reduction in car use, figure large in the discussions.

We constantly come up against opposition groups who maintain that despite the excellent public transport links there will be at The Triangle, football fans won’t bother to use them and will stay in their cars. We don’t agree.

Figures from grounds such as Brighton’s suggest otherwise. We think change is possible provided the options are available.

Back in September, we asked fans to sign up to a new Three Point Pledge at The Triangle, to show their willingness to minimise car use and adopt public transport to get to matches.

The pledge page is still open at oxvox.org.uk/three-point-pledge and we encourage anyone who hasn’t done so to add their input, but we can now report interim results.

READ ALSO: Oxford United release statement addressing planning application delay

To date, a total of 843 fans have replied. They were asked to tick any number of three options, as follows: When travelling to The Triangle…

  • I pledge to leave the car at home and use public transport
  • If it’s not possible to use public transport, I pledge to car share to reduce car use
  • If I have to use the car, I pledge to park only in designated car parks

A massive 82 per cent (691) of fans who replied pledged to leave the car at home and use public transport. This is a huge statement of intent to use alternative means of travel to games.

If it were to apply to all fans, it indicates that the club’s ambitious plan to eventually reach 90 per cent of non-car travel may well be possible. But even among this group, it suggests that hundreds of cars will be left at home, reducing pressure on the local roads and car parks.

Additionally, over half (55 per cent) would car share or would use designated car parks (61 per cent) if car use were unavoidable.

They are willing to minimise car use by sharing, and to avoid disruptive on-street parking.

These results are very reassuring at this stage in the process, before the full range of travel options for the new stadium have been announced.

Fans were expressing their view based on current options, and the introduction of more convenient public transport choices, affordability, and awareness will increase willingness to leave the car at home.

So what’s next? Well, we added a section to allow fans to describe their intended route and means of transport.

We’re reading the many (anonymised) comments which may help identify the less obvious travel options. And of course we focused on car use, given that it accounts for some 90 per cent of fans currently. But a wider and more comprehensive study would be valuable.