This will benefit not just the collegiate University but also local communities, businesses and visitors, by reducing our dependence on cars and promoting ways of getting around the city that are fairer, healthier and less environmentally damaging.
The new Local Transport Strategy was approved in late 2024. It applies until 2029, and is backed by around £2m of University funding over this five-year period.
Its goals are to support walking, cycling and public transport, and to reduce private car journeys.
Fewer cars on the road will make public transport a faster, more reliable and more attractive option. It will also benefit those who need to travel by taxi or private car because of disability or caring responsibilities.
The Strategy aims to cut deaths and serious injuries from collisions, improving safety for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists and encouraging more people to build sustainable modes of transport into their routine without feeling they are putting themselves in danger.
Providing better travel options will ultimately support recruitment and retention of the high-quality staff and students the University needs – being unable to get across town quickly and reliably is a major source of frustration for many people.
What we’ve achieved so far
We have already made real progress towards achieving these goals. The University is a key supporter of the County Council-led Vision Zero programme, which aims to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on the road by 2050, and has helped organise several major events to raise awareness of road safety issues.
We recently redesigned the staff parking permit scheme to provide better support to carers and disabled people, and we have invested in numerous shared transport initiatives, such as shuttle buses connecting the city centre with outlying research sites such as the Headington hospitals, Wytham Woods and the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.
What’s next?
The Strategy makes several commitments for the next five years. These include:
- working in partnership with local authorities and others to provide express bus services;
- continuing to support Vision Zero and prioritise the safety of vulnerable road users; and
- installing more electric vehicle charging points around the estate.
In the longer term, the University will:
- electrify its entire vehicle fleet by 2035;
- reduce traffic to its sites by consolidating incoming deliveries into fewer trips for the last leg of their journeys; and
- develop large-scale infrastructure projects to improve public transport and walking and cycling connectivity.
Implementing the Strategy is financed by income from staff parking permits, which raise over £400,000 a year. Progress will be monitored and reviewed by the Transport Planning Working Group, and reported in the Environmental Sustainability Annual Report.
Sustainable Travel team
The Sustainable Travel team manages and supports a wide range of schemes and activities for achieving the aims of the Transport Strategy, including:
- making sure that staff with a genuine need for parking have priority in using the University’s limited parking availability
- season ticket loans and discounts for public transport
- loans to buy your own bicycle, free bike maintenance and adult cycle training
- providing more cycle parking, showers and changing facilities
- helping departments to make more pool bikes available to their staff, including electric bikes
- the Science Transit Shuttle bus service between the centre of Oxford, Old Road Campus and the Headington hospitals, Begbroke Science Park, Harwell Campus and the Wytham Field Station
- using more Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) in the University’s fleet
- making purchasing and freight servicing more efficient – this means that our suppliers use fewer and zero-emission vehicles to deliver goods to the University
- understanding air quality at a local level and the impact on people travelling around the city.
We also work with a wide range of partner organisations to benefit our staff and students by:
- influencing transport policy in Oxford
- lobbying for transport improvements
- funding transport schemes
- supporting sustainable travel initiatives.
