About the improvements

The Garsington Road active travel scheme in Oxford involves:

• the provision of a new 200-metre section of segregated footway and off-road cycle path (one way) on the south of the carriageway with improvements made on side streets to improve road safety, giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists. 
• the installation of new crossing facilities on the northern and southern arms of the Garsington Road/John Smith Drive Roundabout (the entrance to Oxford Business Park). 
• a signalised toucan crossing (a wider crossing to give more space for people walking, wheeling, pushing prams, or with bicycles) on the western arm of the Garsington Road/John Smith Drive Roundabout.

The project will provide pedestrians, cyclists and school children safer crossing facilities and priority through the area. This is in line with the UK Highway Code. 

What you can expect

Phase 1

Proposals on the following changes to the Garsington Road (B480 corridor) to encourage walking, wheeling, and cycling in the area:

• Creating a new 200-metre section of footway and cycleway with line and markings to separate them on the southern side of Garsington Road between the junction with Hollow Way and the roundabout at the junction with John Smith Drive
• Providing suitable measures to prioritise safer access for people when walking, wheeling, and cycling across the petrol station entrance and the Phipps Road, Napier Road, and St Luke’s Road junctions 
• Adding a new toucan crossing – with lights at the Garsington Road/John Smith Drive Roundabout (western side of the roundabout) to enable safe space for pedestrians, people wheeling and cyclists to cross the road together
• Adding a new crossing on the northern and southern arms of the Garsington Road / John Smith Drive Roundabout (the entrances to Oxford Business Park)
• We may need to move the Voi e-scooter parking bay to a nearby point and adjust the positions of some existing signs and streetlights to accommodate these changes and are currently looking at options for this.

Phase 2

Feasibility and preliminary design will be completed for improvements to the B480/Hollow Way junction and the B480/Between Towns Road junction to provide better access and safety for pedestrians and cyclists. This includes a review of two existing pelican crossings (crossings with traffic lights to stop traffic so pedestrians can cross) at the B480/Hollow Way junction. 

The review will determine whether there is a current requirement for toucan crossings at these points.

Minimising the impact

We will coordinate the work to minimise the impact on the network as far as possible and seek to minimise the impact of construction for all road users. Further details of proposed traffic management arrangements will be available closer to construction.

How it is being funded

The project is being funded by the UK government Department for Transport through the Active Travel Fund Tranche 3 (ATT3) funding round.

Next steps

The project is currently at the preliminary design stage. Milestone Infrastructure has been appointed to complete the scheme design. 

The project is currently at the preliminary design stage. Milestone Infrastructure has been appointed to complete the scheme design. We recently asked for your views on initial proposals for phase one which you can see in our informal survey.

Why we are investing here

The county council was allocated £10,439,437 by the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT) as part of the Active Travel Fund Tranche 3 (ATF3) funding round in May 2022. 

This funding was allocated for infrastructure delivery and feasibility/design work on a selection of defined projects that the county council put forward in its bid. 

Two adjacent projects along Oxford Cycle Route (OCR) 14, on Garsington Road B480, received funding:

• Improvements to OCR 14 on Garsington Road between Hollow Way and the Eastern Bypass, for design and construction only
• Improvements to OCR 14 (Between Towns Road B480 and B4495 Junctions, as well as Cowley Interchange) - for scheme feasibility and preliminary design only. 

Vision and targets

The Garsington Road active travel scheme is strongly aligned with the county council’s ‘vision’ set out within the ‘Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP, 2022 – 2050)’, which includes reducing the need to travel by private car journeys by making walking, cycling, public and shared transport the natural first choice.

 In addition, the scheme will play an important role in helping us to meet the headline targets that underpin the vision and key themes that are set out in the LTCP.

The section for design and construction is on a 200-metre section of Garsington Road between the B480/Hollow Way junction (on the south arm of Garsington Road where there is a missing segregated off-road cycle path) and the Garsington Road/John Smith Drive Roundabout (the entrance to Oxford Business Park). 

The section for feasibility and preliminary design only will provide improved walking and cycling facilities at the Between Towns Road and Hollow Way junctions. This includes the review of new toucan crossings at Garsington Road Junction/Eastern Bypass to decrease the number of stages that pedestrians and cyclists have to cross in this section of the route, and to realign the route according to the desired line.

The schemes are prioritised to recognise the need to improve walking, wheeling, and cycling connectivity along the route. The routes and extents of the cycle network have been defined in the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), which can be considered as a master plan with incremental delivery required to achieve the full envisaged cycling and walking network. 

Contact us 

If you would like to know more about the project, you can contact us.