Have to hand it to the author of that article. It is really nicely written for what it is and doesn’t get in its own way. Learned lots of new things. Would be intrigued to hear what exactly happened to Christopher Tolkien and being silenced/pushed aside.
So far it seems to be making a noticeable, albeit modest difference. Traffic in the city centre is clearly reduced. Buses are no longer queueing for ages at the Plain (the notorious roundabout that connects East Oxford to the city centre) - in fact, bus journey times are improved throughout. There are some knock-on effects, particularly in North Oxford in the evening peak, but generally it's working well. Footfall in the city centre remains high according to official figures, and certainly it was pretty rammed yesterday when I was doing my Christmas shopping.
It's only the third congestion charge to have been implemented in the UK, after London and Durham. (The Oxford scheme thus far is a slightly watered-down version of the full "traffic filters" mentioned in the review, because of the overrunning closure of the bridge by the railway station which cuts off one of the main routes into Oxford.)
So Tolkien was right. Ignore the conspiracy theorists. Have courage and fight back. Cars in historic city centres like Oxford are not something we have to just accept.
The bridge closure is such a big impediment to travel into Oxford I haven't even bothered applying for the residents' permit...
Congestion charge is only ever going to be a minor inconvenience to Oxford city centre visitors since it's already inconvenient to drive in and driving has very little benefit considering it's very small, doesn't sell much in the way of bulky items and has a decent bus service to the suburbs and park and ride.
If we took all of the recorded works of this man who hated the automobile, train an LLM from them, and ask it what it thought of AI, the result would be obscene twice. Once for the project itself and once for the sentiments it would express. If it chose a metaphor from middle earth it would probably be a palantír, and would not appreciate the joke of having become one.
well he probably had a problem with cars around the university. Ive lived there and the traffic with cars is basically horrendous, for a small university town ( and Ive lived in Birmingham and London very crowded places). Finally after a century they have made big changes to reduce traffic.
Its such a problem that if you investigate cycling deaths, the biggest hotspot is literally a roundabout in the center of Oxford outside a college. By hotspot I mean , its literally the number one most dangerous location ( about a 10 meter stretch) for cyclists in about a 50 mile radius. I discovered this one day just doing some random research on my own.
Also unfortunately I know someone whose girlfriend got killed near that same roundabout.
I dont even think its common knowledge, other than "watch the traffic".
Its actually quite shocking they even allowed the traffic to get that bad, it is after all "meant" to be the brightest minds in the country ( or was at some point).
What they were supposed to do, stop people from moving in ?
It's generally hard for any existing city (especially if it is older one with narrow streets) to transform communication, from cost to having to displace citizens in worst case.
Have to hand it to the author of that article. It is really nicely written for what it is and doesn’t get in its own way. Learned lots of new things. Would be intrigued to hear what exactly happened to Christopher Tolkien and being silenced/pushed aside.
Not mentioned in this review is that the scheme to reduce Oxford's traffic actually took effect in October: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-31-october-ghost-edi...
So far it seems to be making a noticeable, albeit modest difference. Traffic in the city centre is clearly reduced. Buses are no longer queueing for ages at the Plain (the notorious roundabout that connects East Oxford to the city centre) - in fact, bus journey times are improved throughout. There are some knock-on effects, particularly in North Oxford in the evening peak, but generally it's working well. Footfall in the city centre remains high according to official figures, and certainly it was pretty rammed yesterday when I was doing my Christmas shopping.
It's only the third congestion charge to have been implemented in the UK, after London and Durham. (The Oxford scheme thus far is a slightly watered-down version of the full "traffic filters" mentioned in the review, because of the overrunning closure of the bridge by the railway station which cuts off one of the main routes into Oxford.)
So Tolkien was right. Ignore the conspiracy theorists. Have courage and fight back. Cars in historic city centres like Oxford are not something we have to just accept.
The bridge closure is such a big impediment to travel into Oxford I haven't even bothered applying for the residents' permit...
Congestion charge is only ever going to be a minor inconvenience to Oxford city centre visitors since it's already inconvenient to drive in and driving has very little benefit considering it's very small, doesn't sell much in the way of bulky items and has a decent bus service to the suburbs and park and ride.
Link doesn't seem to have a link to the text; I'd love to read it.
It’s available for purchase from multiple sellers, from bookshop.org to Amazon.
If we took all of the recorded works of this man who hated the automobile, train an LLM from them, and ask it what it thought of AI, the result would be obscene twice. Once for the project itself and once for the sentiments it would express. If it chose a metaphor from middle earth it would probably be a palantír, and would not appreciate the joke of having become one.
And yet he owned a motor car, and enjoyed fast driving. Humans are complex.
well he probably had a problem with cars around the university. Ive lived there and the traffic with cars is basically horrendous, for a small university town ( and Ive lived in Birmingham and London very crowded places). Finally after a century they have made big changes to reduce traffic.
Its such a problem that if you investigate cycling deaths, the biggest hotspot is literally a roundabout in the center of Oxford outside a college. By hotspot I mean , its literally the number one most dangerous location ( about a 10 meter stretch) for cyclists in about a 50 mile radius. I discovered this one day just doing some random research on my own.
Also unfortunately I know someone whose girlfriend got killed near that same roundabout.
I dont even think its common knowledge, other than "watch the traffic".
Its actually quite shocking they even allowed the traffic to get that bad, it is after all "meant" to be the brightest minds in the country ( or was at some point).
What they were supposed to do, stop people from moving in ?
It's generally hard for any existing city (especially if it is older one with narrow streets) to transform communication, from cost to having to displace citizens in worst case.
Is it the one by Magdalen/Hilda's?
Yes.