Additional information

The development of a county-wide network of active travel infrastructure is a key commitment in Oxfordshire County Council's adopted Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP). It is in line with the council's priority to reduce trips made by cars and other private motorised vehicles by enabling an uptake in active travel and use of public transport.

This project is part of a wider set of strategic and policy work aimed at improving the way active travel infrastructure is designed, implemented and maintained. SATN aims to complement more localised plans, like the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs), by considering connectivity across the county as a whole and concentrating on links between settlements. This will allow us to assess areas not covered by LCWIPs (albeit at a less detailed scale) and prioritise routes according to their overall strategic contribution to the network.

Key elements of the work done to date are:

• a comprehensive analysis of a range of datasets, including National Travel Surveys (NTS), Propensity to Cycle (PCT), Census Outputs (2021), Strava Recreational Data, Topography/Terrain, Population Densities, Collision Data and Public Transport Networks; we also considered the local Policy Framework and committed schemes across the county, including LCWIPs and future development sites
• an early engagement exercise (December 2022) based on the emerging network of routes, complemented with sustained conversations with key stakeholders and collaborators
• iterations of the network following discussions at the project Steering Group (including officers and councillors from County, City and District Councils, as well as representatives from key stakeholder groups) and engagement with neighbouring authorities working on similar or relevant projects, such as Buckinghamshire Council's county-wide LCWIP or England Economic Heartland's Active Travel Strategy

The feedback from this consultation will help us finalise the final report, which will be adopted and published in September 2023.

We will then identify which of the recommendations in the report we take forward in order to progress some of the routes (most likely on an area-by-area basis). The Strategic Active Travel Network will be updated accordingly when further detail (or additional routes) are identified.

We also hope that the final report will be of use to other partners who are involved in the development of active travel infrastructure (District Councils, neighbouring authorities, community groups, developers) across Oxfordshire.