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Now that Morse hascracked his final case, Oxfords streets will be freed from the annual disruption caused by successive Jaguars and their attendant film crews. But thats of little comfort to residents facing a new source of gridlock one, ironically, caused by those protesting efforts to reduce the citys notorious congestion. Last month 2,000 eclectic protestors descended on the city centre to oppose, amongst other things, Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), 15-minute cities, and climate lockdowns.

As a former resident and council candidate, Im much too familiar with Oxfords traffic trouble. A medieval city spared the Luftwaffe-induced redevelopment of many other English urban areas, it has long debated, but done little to alleviate, the problem of ever-greater car numbers. Notorious plans to replace Christ Church Meadow with a motorway were fortunately seen off in the 1960s. The city eventually became the first in Britain to introduce a Park and Ride in 1973.

For too long, we have defended the rights of the motorists and ignored their challenge to many of our basic beliefs

Various traffic filters have since been introduced. But still the jams come. Hence Oxfordshire County Councils latest wheeze: six new traffic filters on connecting roads around the city which will use cameras to filter vehicles ability to pass through. Designed to discourage unnecessary car journeys, with exemptions for buses, blue badge holders, and the like, locals will be provided with 100-day annual permits to cross the boundaries, or will otherwise be fined 70 for not using the ring roads.

Similar schemes are working in Ghent and Groningen and have been proposed for Canterbury and Birmingham. They will undoubtedly make life more expensive for some motorists. But defending the right to drive unimpeded through central Oxford usually means defending your right to sit in traffic. Many will welcome any attempt to alleviate congestion. So why has it sent the unlikely alliance of Piers Corbyn, Jordan Peterson, and countless internet outriders into such paroxysms of fury?

Undoubtedly, Tory opposition councillors are right to highlight the Councils somewhat shifty attitude to disclosing the schemes purported impact on congestion. The puritanical Labour-Liberal-Democrat-Green coalition, in place since 2021, isleading crusadesagainstsmoking, meat-eating, and Jeremy Clarkson. But their traffic policies newfound notoriety is spawned by a confusion about several over-lapping ideas and jurisdictions and provides a welcome opportunity for local Conservatives.

The city already has several LTNs, with various traffic-reducing filters. These, like the proposed new measures, are under Oxfordshire County Councils control. This been confused with theCityCouncils objective to introduce 15-minute neighbourhoods into Oxford by 2040. Simply put, this is an objective to make everything required in your daily life shops, GPs, schools, etc within 15 minutes walk or cycle away. The concept is both long-standing and, according to YouGov, popular.

There is obvious overlap with the County Councils desire to reduce congestion. But this is not an attempt to lock residents into a 15-minute zones, as some online have suggested. Both councils reference Net Zero, but so does most government policy. This is no climate lockdown residents will obviously be free to come and go from their neighbourhoods as they wish. Similar proposals are being trialled across the world, including in Paris and Melbourne.

This internationalism naturally appeals to those fond of conspiracies blaming the worlds ills on Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. But opposition is far from limited to conspiracy theorists and also comes from within my own party. The MP Nick Fletcherlabelled15-minute cities as an international socialist concept last month. Local county councillors described the city as a troublingly democracy-free zone. Owing partially to my failure to campaign a tad harder two years ago, there are currently no Conservatives on the City Council.

Nonetheless, I think my fellow Tories are wrong to damn these proposals so vociferously. The ambition behind 15-minute cities is fundamentally conservative. For too long, we have unthinkingly defended the rights of the motorists and ignored their challenge to many of our basic beliefs. They are noisy, polluting, and destructive; they cause cities to be shaped around vehicles, not people. More trafficis associatedwith weaker communities, worse air quality, and unhappier lives.

Of course, we can challenge the details of future schemes. Many motorists will lose out, and we should always remain attentive to their concerns. But that should not stop us from seizing the initiative. We should aim to make cities as nice as possible to walk and cycle around. In Oxford, the pandemic-era pedestrianisation of Broad Street should be extended, and more street trees and green spaces introduced. We should ensure new construction reflects the citys historic and beautiful character.

Conservatives in Oxford and across the country should see this as an opportunity to prove the urban Tory is not a dying breed. We should not leave the debate on redeveloping our cities to left-wing idealists and the internets unhappy fringe. By placing people, neighbourhoods, and the environment, not cars, at the centre of our urban areas, we can outline a Conservative vision for the 21stcentury city an agenda of which the late Roger Scruton would surely have approved.

Originally posted here:
We should support Oxford's crackdown on motorists - The Spectator