Sir, Once again, Oxford is facing another massive expansion without satisfactorily planning the bus access and interchange routes in advance.
There seems no decision on diverting buses from congested Queen Street. The former proposed bus station, or bus hub, below Castle Street has gone for another unnecessary building.
Many, especially the elderly, could find more problems in trying to follow council policy to use buses round Oxford.
Worse, the width of the new Castle and Norfolk Streets at 6.9m appears less than Queen Street (with one-way traffic), and varying pavements will have to accommodate long bus bays. Landscape diagrams show just a few pedestrians crossing such roads, including even at the New Road junction end! But the plans leave ill-defined road crossing points in between the bays - even at the exit from the more distant, single multi-storey car park, surely leading to indiscriminate bus and pedestrian road confusion.
There may be some new cycle stands, but do cyclists have to walk cycles both across and along these long roads at main times, as in Queen Street?
With shopper numbers expected by councils, the whole reality could more resemble the dangerous Queen Street scenario, because Castle Street bus numbers already equal those and will also have the numerous coaches, including presumably the 15-metre London Tubes, which developers admit will have some space difficulty in passing similar-sized vehicles. Unlike the Queen Street stopping buses, these other vehicles will be hastening through as they can now.
Geoffrey Sheat, Oxford
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