Quiet lanes project in Oxfordshire set to reduce rural road speed limits
The plan seeks to improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians, and horse riders
The first road changes for Oxfordshire’s new ‘quiet lanes’ project are set to be approved next week, despite police calling them “highly inappropriate”.
The county council’s quiet lane plans involve a set of partial road closures to traffic using gates or bollards, creating routes for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders where there is an alternative or adjacent available.
The scheme, which goes beyond Government guidance for what a ‘quiet lane’ is, has been dubbed rural LTNs and met with mixed reaction.
Its proponents at the council say it will “make rural roads and key links between urban areas more attractive to a wider range of road-users”.
Now, speed limit drops around Shepards Pit Lane, in Stanton St John, come as “part of the overall traffic calming measures that form part of the quiet lanes programme” according to a council report.
This quiet lane has been in the works for several years, and will be included in the wider scheme of 10 ‘experimental’ orders.
The other nine roads have not yet been confirmed – proposals include streets in Blackthorn Village, Fawler, Towersey, Goring, Kennington, and Aston Rowant – some roads have been removed from contention as lanes amid local opposition.
On Thursday, September 3, transport boss Gareth Epps has been recommended to approve speed limit cuts from 60mph to 20mph on Shepards Pit Lane, to its junction with the B4027 Wheatley Road, and extend a 30mph restriction on that B-road, replacing a 50mph limit as part of the scheme.
Responding to a consultation on the speed limit plans, a traffic management officer with Thames Valley Police has objected, saying: “Accepting you already have an internal policy in terms of setting 20mph speed limits and following your withdrawal from National Guidance, I can only object to these current proposals as being highly inappropriate under the circumstances.
“This objection applies to both proposed speed limits.”
Previously, police have raised concerns about the countywide 20mph speed limit rollout with concern about enforceability, limited police resources, risk of unfair criminalisation and concern that unrealistic limits could be ignored and have negative impacts for road safety.
The speed limit changes come ahead of planned experimental traffic orders which are set to involve traffic filtering potentially using physical blocks, to “reduce vehicle numbers and speeds, lower the risk and severity of collisions, make minor roads feel calmer and safer, in order to help make it safer for people to walk, cycle, wheel and horse ride”.
Speed limit changes cannot be made within the traffic orders, which is why this decision is being made separately.
A council officer responded to the police response, saying the authority’s transport plan is “clear in its vision and policies around improving road safety, balancing the needs of all road users on the transport network”.
They also noted that objections about “proposals being anti-car, a waste of money, not enforceable or pointless” could not be resolved through amendments to the proposals.
The majority of responses to the public consultation had been supportive.