ITEM CMDT3
CABINET MEMBER FOR TRANSPORT – 23 APRIL 2009
TRANSFORM OXFORD VISION AND QUEEN STREET IMPROVEMENTS 2009
Report by Head of Transport
Introduction
1. The county council has consulted widely on the Transform Oxford vision launched last autumn and separately on the detailed proposals to improve Queen Street as part of that vision. This report gives details of the feedback on both, although it concentrates particularly on the Queen Street scheme. A full impact assessment of the Queen Street scheme is reported. In the light of the consultation feedback and impact assessment, the Cabinet Member for Transport is recommended to approve the Queen Street scheme for implementation.
Background
2. The county council’s plans to significantly improve the pedestrian experience in Oxford city centre were launched at a media conference on 20 October last year. The media conference was the start of a far reaching consultation process on the vision that aimed to reach both stakeholders and the wider public in and beyond the city.
3. Since the launch of the wider vision officers have been working on the detail of the proposals for improvements in Queen Street - the first scheme of the Transform Oxford programme – for implementation during summer 2009. These proposals have been the subject of a consultation which is detailed below.
Transform Oxford Vision
4. The Transform Oxford vision consists of exciting plans to enhance the transport and pedestrian experience in Oxford city centre. It seeks to achieve the standard of environment that the city deserves, while maintaining excellent access for everyone. It is a bold challenge and will build on work that started with the city’s Balanced Transport Policy followed by the introduction of the Oxford Transport Strategy.
5. The Transform Oxford vision sets out clear ambitions for the city centre and an approximate two-stage timetable for implementation. However, the proposals in the vision are not set in stone and will be shaped and refined by consultation and technical work. The county council is committed to seeing real change on the ground over the next two to three years; but the timetable may of course change a little as part of the ongoing process of refinement. The implementation timetable is currently as follows:
Stage one · Queen Street improvements (2009) – details below · George Street/Magdalen Street pedestrianisation (2010) · Broad Street improvements (2010) · Frideswide Square redesign (2011)
Stage two · High Street, St Aldate’s and Queen Street improvements (beyond 2011)
6. More details of the vision can be found in the copy of the consultation leaflet that accompanied the launch (Annex 1) (download as .pdf file). This and more information is still available on the Transform Oxford web pages of the county council website.
Consultation on the Transform Oxford Vision
7. Feedback on the Transform Oxford vision has been actively sought by a variety of means over the six months since the launch.
Written media 8. The leaflet at Annex 1 accompanied the launch and was sent to all households in Oxford. A two page article on the vision was also the cover story in the November edition of the Oxfordshire magazine which is distributed to all households in the county. The vision had its own dedicated pages on the council website with full details of what is being proposed.
Meetings/briefings 9. As part of the consultation process the Cabinet Member for Transport and council officers have attended a large number of meetings since October in order to present the vision, answer questions and listen to and record comments and concerns. These meetings have been a mixture of those open to the public and those aimed specifically at briefing groups with a particular interest in the vision. Annex 2 (download as .doc file) gives a full list of the different meetings and groups that have been addressed on the Transform Oxford vision.
A dedicated email address 10. This was set up to receive comments, concerns and queries on the Transform Oxford vision either directly or via an electronic survey form on the web pages (the county council’s freepost address has also been made available to the Transform Oxford project).
Feedback on the Transform Oxford Vision
11. In excess of 225 submissions have been made since October. This feedback has been very welcome and will continue to be very helpful in shaping and implementing the vision. In broad terms there has been a significant amount of support for the vision with many individuals and interested groups keen to see improvements to the quality of the pedestrian experience in the city centre.
12. Overall, 46% of the responses were positive about the vision, 38% were negative and 16% expressed no clear view. Copies of all the responses to the consultation on the Transform Oxford vision are available in the Members’ Resource Centre.
13. Those who responded positively were enthusiastic about the potential improvements to the environment of the city centre that they felt would result from the proposals. People feel these improvements are long overdue and urged the council to deliver the scheme as quickly as possible.
14. A number of specific concerns have been raised as a result of the consultation (some of these are understandably expressed as caveats to in principle support for the vision). The main concerns raised are summarised below.
Process 15. People commented that the vision is too fixed, and should have been consulted on earlier to allow the public and stakeholders to shape the vision. People also commented that, given the apparent rigidity of the proposals, far too little detail was made available to allow people to comment meaningfully. Some people were also concerned that the vision did not appear to be part of a clear strategy for the city centre, and that a comprehensive strategy should be developed and consulted on first, before any element of Transform Oxford is implemented.
Bus access, particularly from the east 16. Understandably, one of the main concerns about the Transform Oxford vision is that it would have a negative effect on bus access to the city centre, particularly for those less able to walk long distances. People living to the east of the city centre were particularly alarmed by the notion of having to change buses at or near The Plain to access the centre by bus.
Cycle access 17. Cyclists were concerned that cycling was not covered adequately in the consultation materials, and that it had therefore been ignored as a mode of travel. Cyclists were also concerned that the proposals would significantly reduce their ability to access certain streets and that the scheme would effectively sever several important cycle routes through the city centre.
Impact on people with disabilities 18. People with disabilities were concerned about the changes to bus routes and the increases in walking distances that could result from those changes.
Displacement of impacts 19. People were concerned that the proposals would merely displace environmental and congestion problems from one part of the city centre to another – in some cases, shifting problems to more sensitive streets.
Proposals to improve Queen Street in 2009
Background 20. The first scheme of the first stage of Transform Oxford involves improvements to Queen Street in 2009. It is widely accepted that the environment in Queen Street is very poor in many respects and it has been an aspiration of both the county and city councils for many years to pedestrianise the street. This has proved very difficult to achieve in practice, not least because the number of buses using the street is so high that simply re-routeing all of them would cause unacceptable knock-on effects in other city centre streets.
21. Queen Street is a critical part of the city centre bus network. Perhaps its most important function is to allow buses from the east of the city whose route ends in the city centre to turn around and return to east Oxford via the High Street. If these buses (approximately 45 buses per hour of the total of 76 buses per hour using Queen Street) were not able to use Queen Street, they would need somewhere else to turn around. Currently the only place they could do this without incurring substantial additional mileage running empty is in the Speedwell Street area. However, this would not only mean an increase in northbound bus flows in St Aldate’s of 50 – 60 buses per hour (taking into account non-terminating services), it would also mean the 45 buses per hour from east Oxford would have nowhere convenient to pick up passengers but St Aldate’s. There simply is not space in St Aldate’s for 45 additional buses per hour to pick up passengers. Even if there were, the environment in St Aldate’s would be very badly affected by this large increase in bus activity.
22. For the last two years, work has been carried out to try to find a feasible alternative location for buses to turn around to the west of the Castle Street/New Road junction. Such a facility would allow buses from the east to pick up passengers in Castle Street, reducing (but not eliminating) the need for extra bus stops in St Aldate’s. Even with this facility, the increase in bus flows in St Aldate’s would still be 50 – 60 buses per hour, because buses would still need to use St Aldate’s to return to east Oxford via High Street having picked up passengers in Castle Street. In any event, it has unfortunately not yet proved possible to find an acceptable location for buses to turn around to the west of the Castle Street/New Road junction. The county council has therefore had to conclude – reluctantly – that buses cannot be removed from Queen Street altogether in the short term.
23. Keeping Queen Street open for some buses, but removing the bus stops, will significantly improve the environment in Queen Street without encountering the difficulties outlined above. It will allow buses to serve bus stops in Castle Street and New Road, to the west of Bonn Square, which means there will be only a small increase in the number of buses picking up passengers in St Aldate’s (an additional 10 buses per hour at peak times). Although there will be an increase in bus flows in St Aldate’s, keeping Queen Street open allows this increase to be kept to an absolute minimum.
24. Officers believe that it will only be possible to pedestrianise Queen Street fully without major detrimental impacts on St Aldate’s and other nearby streets if the number of buses operating in this part of the city centre is significantly reduced and/or a suitable turning facility to the west of the Castle Street/New Road junction can be found. Developing Stage 2 of the Transform Oxford vision (including the bus quality partnership scheme which will help rationalise bus services in the city) is therefore critical to the full pedestrianisation of Queen Street.
25. In the meantime, the county council recognises that Queen Street is in great need of environmental improvements and is therefore planning changes to the way it works in the short term to bring about major improvements for those using the street. The changes involve:
· relocating bus stops from Queen Street to the northern end of St Aldate’s, the northern end of Castle Street and New Road, just west of Bonn Square · reducing the number of buses passing through Queen Street by up to 50 percent · creating more space for pedestrians · resurfacing pavements and the road · replacing street furniture - benches, cycle racks etc
Relocation of bus stops and reduction in bus flows 26. Removing bus stops from Queen Street at the same time as reducing the number of buses travelling through the street needs to be managed very carefully to prevent the creation of new congestion and air quality problems on the nearby streets. The exercise is a complicated one, given that there is a finite amount of kerb space available for bus stops in the nearby streets.
27. The process of relocating bus stops away from Queen Street was an iterative one, using the principles set out in the consultation leaflet at Annex 3 (download as .doc file) to help officers develop proposals that had the least impact on bus passengers and the streets involved. For each different scenario proposed, the previously developed bus routeing assessment tool for the city centre was used to understand in detail what impact that scenario had in terms of traffic flow. Detailed discussions were also held with senior representatives of the two main bus companies to ensure additional input from an operator’s perspective. The bus stop re-allocation plan that was arrived at as a result of this process and which formed part of the public consultation is on the Transform Oxford web pages. Whilst significant improvements were made to the allocation, the bus companies were not satisfied that the proposals would work.
28. Full details of the scheme are set out at Annex 4 (download as .doc file).
Impact of Proposals
29. The impacts of the proposals for Queen Street are described in detail at Annex 5 (download as .doc file). A summary of the main conclusions is below:
Access and equality 30. A detailed equality and access assessment has been carried out. While Queen Street clearly provides convenient locations for bus stops in relation to many important destinations in the city centre, the proposals are beneficial in many ways for people with disabilities. For example, the bus stops replacing those in Queen Street will have many features (such as a standard kerb for easier boarding) that are not provided by the current bus stops in Queen Street. The increase in walking distances is relatively small for most journeys and the proposed new bus stops are still in the heart of the city centre. However, the extra walking distances and certain other aspects of the scheme may be difficult for some people with disabilities.
Air quality 31. An air quality assessment has been carried out with assistance from Oxford City Council’s Environmental Development team. Queen Street currently has the second highest pedestrian flow of any street in the city centre, but also some of the highest levels of air-borne pollution. Most of this pollution comes from buses. Buses produce significantly higher emissions when stopping and starting, for example at bus stops. The air quality assessment has shown that the proposals would result in a moderate reduction in air pollution levels in Queen Street, and small or very small increases in pollution levels in other streets to which buses are displaced. The predicted increase in pollution in St Aldate’s is small; in High Street the predicted increase is very small.
Road safety 32. Queen Street does not have an accident problem, though many people perceive it to be unsafe. A road safety assessment of the scheme has concluded that it is unlikely to affect accident rates, either in Queen Street or in other streets affected. Bus speeds are not expected to increase in Queen Street, because the bus flow will be around a third lower and pedestrians are expected to fill the road space far more than they currently do. However, this must be monitored carefully.
Pedestrian experience 33. The scheme will transform the pedestrian experience in Queen Street, freeing up more space for pedestrians, reducing noise and air pollution and dramatically reducing clutter. Carfax will become a far more attractive space. Bus flows will increase in other streets, but those streets have much lower pedestrian flows than Queen Street. St Aldate’s has approximately one-third of the pedestrian flow of Queen Street, though the number of pedestrians in St Aldate’s will of course increase a little when 10 extra buses per hour stop there. Experience from the implementation of the Oxford Transport Strategy in 1999 shows that pedestrian flows in Cornmarket Street increased slightly when the bus stops and buses were removed.
Traffic congestion 34. Queen Street often becomes congested with buses, partly because the very high pedestrian flows make it a difficult environment in which to operate. The proposed scheme will result in an increase in bus stopping activity at several locations – primarily in Castle Street and St Aldate’s. Bus stops have been allocated very carefully to help avoid congestion and additional enforcement of parking and loading restrictions will be introduced to prevent blockages associated with these activities. There may be some teething problems at certain stops, which may require some minor changes after implementation. In St Aldate’s bus stops have been allocated with the specific aim of minimising the risk of “stacking” at stops (where two buses try to access the same stop), so officers do not expect additional congestion there.
Overall conclusion 35. The proposals will transform the environment in Queen Street, making the air cleaner, eliminating congestion and making the street much easier and more pleasant to walk through. Access for bus passengers and the environment in other streets are negatively affected to an extent, but the proposals have been designed to minimise these negative impacts.
Consultation on Queen Street Improvements
36. Extensive consultation was carried out between 26 February to 23 March with a wide range of groups and individuals with a specific interest in the plans, as well as with the wider public. The leaflet at Annex 3 was available in council offices and city libraries and around 4,000 copies were handed out to bus passengers at affected city centre bus stops on 27 February and 4 March. The information was the subject of a press release at the start of the consultation period and was available throughout on the council’s Transform Oxford web pages.
37. The leaflet did not include all of the details of the changes to bus stops due to the large volume of information that this involved. The full list of changes to bus stops in the city centre was made available on the web pages and also in paper form on request. The information can be seen at Annex 4.
38. The leaflet and web pages set out clearly how people could have their say on the proposals via the dedicated email address and completion of both online and paper survey forms.
39. Annex 2 lists the meetings and briefings that took place as part of the consultation on the proposals.
Response to the Queen Street Consultation
40. In total, over 250 responses were received including 19 from interested groups. Overall, 44% of responses were broadly positive, 49% were broadly negative and 7% expressed no particular view.
41. Those who responded positively quoted reasons largely related to the poor conditions in the street for pedestrians as a result of the feeling of intimidation by buses and the poor air quality that people currently experience.
42. Those who responded negatively had a variety of concerns. A list of the common concerns that were raised as a result of the consultation together with officer responses is set out at Annex 6 (download as .doc file). The most common concerns related to:
· the relocated bus stops being too far away from their existing positions and therefore being more difficult to access, particularly for people with mobility problems · the additional congestion and air pollution that would be created on the streets where there is additional bus flow and stopping activity
Joint response to the Queen Street proposals by the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire
43. As part of the consultation, the two major bus companies submitted a joint response. Whilst both companies want to see a fully pedestrianised Queen Street, they object to the current proposals for Queen Street largely on the basis that they will “overload and congest neighbouring streets.” Rather than remove some of the buses now, they are committed to using the powers available under the new Local Transport Act (specifically a Quality Partnership Scheme) to reduce the overall number of buses in the city centre to allow the complete pedestrianisation of Queen Street with a reduced impact on nearby streets.
44. The bus companies suggest that the Quality Partnership Scheme (QPS) can be signed before the summer 2009 and that the entire package can be in place during 2010 when the full pedestrianisation of Queen Street can be delivered. A copy of the bus companies’ response to the Queen Street proposals is available at www.oxfordbus.co.uk.
45. The commitment of the bus companies to reduce the number of buses in the city centre and deliver the associated full pedestrianisation of Queen Street is extremely welcome. However, the view of officers is that the relocation of bus stops away from Queen Street will work as proposed by the county council and that the poor current conditions in Queen Street warrant action as soon as possible. The suggested timescale for implementing the quality partnership scheme is optimistic, due at least in part to the reliance on new and untried legislation. Officers also believe that the level of reduction in bus numbers may not be sufficient to allow Queen Street to be fully pedestrianised without far greater environmental and congestion impacts on nearby streets (particularly St Aldate’s) than would result from the proposals in this report.
46. Progress on the Bus Quality Partnership Scheme is being maintained in parallel with work on Queen Street.
47. Many of Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach’s concerns are addressed further in the impact assessment at Annex 5 (download as .doc file).
Alterations to Queen Street proposals following consultation
48. A summary of the changes proposed to the scheme in response to the consultation is set out at Annex 4. One of the changes is a proposal to introduce a new zebra crossing at the junction of New Road and Castle Street (as shown at Annex 7) (download as .doc file) to improve access to the bus stops on the west side of Castle Street.
Conclusion
49. The pedestrian experience in Queen Street is extremely poor. Carfax is considered by many to be the heart of the city; yet the open space on the Queen Street side is a cluttered, polluted mess. The proposed scheme will transform Queen Street and Carfax into attractive, user-friendly places. The implementation of the current proposals is an important first step towards achieving a completely bus free Queen Street as part of Stage 2 of Transform Oxford.
50. The scheme has some disadvantages. While air quality will improve moderately in Queen Street, it will worsen a little in some other streets. Walking distances to bus stops will increase by a relatively small amount for many people. These increases may be particularly difficult for people with disabilities.
51. Officers have considered all of the scheme impacts in detail and studied consultation feedback carefully. A number of changes have been made to the scheme in response to consultation.
52. On balance, officers believe the improvements to Queen Street and Carfax significantly outweigh the disadvantages of the scheme. Officers also believe that the proposed changes to bus stops will work operationally.
Next Steps
53. The detailed design of the physical alterations to Queen Street and the areas where bus stops will be relocated needs to be completed. The project team will continue to work with interested parties as this task is carried out.
54. The bus stop re-allocation plan will need to be fine tuned in the light of responses to the consultation and any other operational issues that arise as a result of further discussions with bus operators.
55. Should the recommendations of this report be agreed, a major information campaign will need to be undertaken to ensure that all those affected are made aware of the changes, not least bus passengers and drivers and the occupiers of all properties affected. Officers will, in particular, need to work closely with the bus operators in doing this.
Timing of the Works
56. There is never a good time to carry out roadworks in a busy city centre. However, it is felt that the summer holidays would be the best time as traffic is generally quieter at that time and work is also much less likely to be delayed by bad weather. The council will work closely with all those affected to ensure adequate warning is given of the works and that disruption is kept to an absolute minimum. The physical works in Queen Street are programmed to start at the end of June or in early July subject to the approval of the Cabinet Member for Transport. For that to happen, the permanent changes to bus stop locations and the improvements to bus stops will need to be implemented by then.
How the project supports LTP2 Objectives
57. The scheme would contribute significantly towards:
· Improving the street environment, particularly in Queen Street which is currently a very low quality space due mostly to the large number of buses and the tired surfacing materials and street furniture. · Improving air quality in the street – (Annex 5).
Financial Implications
58. The proposed improvements to Queen Street as set out at Annex 4 and incorporating the changes in the same annex are estimated to cost £985,000. Funding for this work has been identified and allocated in the Transport Capital Programme for 2009/10.
RECOMMENDATIONS
59. The Cabinet Member for Transport is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) note the feedback received as a result of the consultation on both the Transform Oxford vision and the proposals for improvements to Queen Street;
(b) approve the principle of the relocation of bus stops from Queen Street as described in Annex 4 to the report, incorporating the suggested changes in the same Annex;
(c) approve for implementation the scheme design for Queen Street as set out in Annex 4 to this report, incorporating the suggested changes highlighted in the same annex as a result of the consultation, and any further changes arising from detailed design and safety audits;
(d) authorise the Head of Transport in consultation with the cabinet Member for Transport to decide on implementation of a raised zebra crossing at the corner of Castle Street and New Road as shown in Annex 7 to this report.
STEVE HOWELL Head of Transport Environment & economy
Background papers: Nil
Contact Officers: Craig Rossington Tel: 01865 815575 Martin Kraftl Tel: 01865 815786
April 2009
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