Over 180 people came to our meeting on Oct. 2nd and supported our call for immediate and substantial investment to make Oxford a healthier and safer city for people who walk, cycle and use our roads.

Andrew Gilligan, the key note speaker, is author of ‘Running out of Road’ – a report commissioned by the National Infrastructure Commission and published July 2018. You can read his report here.

Currently around 28% of people in Oxford (about 12.7% in Oxfordshire) cycle three times a week. That figure could be higher – in Cambridge it’s 40% and in the Netherlands over 40% of people cycle every day. Rethinking the way we get around can help tackle our air quality crisis and more. The evidence is clear: people will cycle more when this is a safe and reliable option. In so doing, they improve their own health and the health of people around them.

Help make this happen!

You can help make this happen! Please write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond (Philip.Hammond.mp@parliament.gov.uk) – base your letter on this text:

We call on you, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to release £150m in the Autumn Budget to provide segregated cycle routes in the City of Oxford, as proposed in the Gilligan Report, for the benefit of all who travel within the city, and between the city and its surrounding towns. The situation is urgent because of the poor air quality and congested streets in Oxford at present, combined with imminent threats from new developments bringing increasing traffic and people into the City.

Please also get active locally!

• Please sign the Oxfordshire Clean Air Charter:
This has been developed by Oxford Friends of the Earth and sets out ten transport-related actions that our councils can and should take to clean our air and create safer streets.
• Cyclox – Oxford’s cycling campaign – have their own campaigns
• The ‘Claudia Charter’ for Oxford sets out much of what needs to be done on cycle safety

We will post updates on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/taketheco2outofox2    and welcome your ideas and comments 

A full report on the meeting will be posted here shortly.