Where is our County-wide traffic assessment?

Steve Dawe, Policy Coordinator of Oxfordshire Green Party, has prepared a motion to the County Council for Oxfordshire's Green Party County Councillors. Proposals for 100,000 homes to be built in Oxford by 2031 lack an overall traffic assessment to show how existing or new transport infrastructure will cope. Steve Dawe explains:

Oxfordshire Green Party recognises that new housing developments suggested by the Strategic Market Housing Assessment, and modified by changes in some District Council local plans, will lead to the generation of substantial increases in traffic throughout Oxfordshire. We remain sceptical that the labour force and finance to build many of these homes will come into existence under present economic conditions.

Steve Dawe specifies:

The Green Group urges the County Council to collaborate with Oxfordshire's District Councils, the Local Economic Partnership, landowners such as Oxford University Colleges and developers in commissioning a transport impact assessment for the current range of housing proposals covering the period up to 2031. The study must focus on the implications of Oxford City's employment growth, increased commuting from within and outside Oxfordshire, and the likely traffic congestion increases in the market towns of the County.

Steve Dawe argues that a traffic assessment will help the case for new infrastructure:

The County Council's case for more resources for cycling, walking, bus and rail investments may be considerably enhanced by such an assessment, given the scale of possible traffic impacts likely to result from planned new housing. In short, Oxfordshire cannot cope with massive traffic increases if a total of 100,000 new homes are built by 2031.