Traffic Filter FAQs

Car owners in Oxfordshire will be able to have some free passes to go through the filters. One pass means you will be able to drive through all the filters, as many times as you like, for one day.

All residents within the Oxford permit area will be able to apply for 100 free passes a year for up to three cars per household. All Oxfordshire residents outside this area will be able to apply for 25 free passes a year for up to two cars per household.

The passes are per car owner and per household, so three sets of passes would need three different car owners registered at that address. One car owner can’t have multiple sets of passes, and passes can’t be swapped between vehicles.

In summer 2024, you will be able to register for passes online, by email, or by phone. See Oxfordshire County Council’s page for more information.

To make sure you’re ready to register for a pass when the time comes, be sure to update your V5C with your current address.

Anyone with an exemption will be able to drive through the filters for free.

Owners of these vehicles can apply for an exemption:

• Blue Badge holders

• Disabled tax-class vehicles

• Professional health and care workers

• Qualifying unpaid carers (registered carers, carer ID holders, recipients of attendance allowance)

• Patients receiving frequent hospital treatments

• Person receiving mobility component of the disability living allowance, or personal independence payment

• School student receiving direct travel payments

• Car club vehicles

• Taxis and private hire vehicles

• Cars used as goods vehicles by businesses

• Approved driving instructors

• Emergency service and qualifying health service cars

Non-car vehicles (buses, minibuses, coaches, mopeds, motorbikes, emergency vehicles, hearses, vans/light commercial vehicles, and heavy goods vehicles) are automatically exempt from the filters without applying for passes.

For more details and the most up-to-date information, see the Oxfordshire County Council’s page.

You can still drive anywhere in Oxford without driving through a traffic filter, but you may need to take a different route. Here are the locations of the six traffic filters to help with route planning.

Here are some other transport options as well:

• Buses: With the bus improvements being made as a result of the filters, it will be faster and easier to take a bus. Here is fare information for the Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach. You can also buy SmartZone tickets, for unlimited travel on Oxford Bus Company, Stagecoach, Thames Travel and Arriva bus routes operating in and around Oxford starting at £4.60.

• Park & Ride: For £370 per year, you can get unlimited parking at any of Oxford’s five Park & Ride sites. If you cycle from the P&R, you wouldn’t have to pay anything more. You can of course also take the bus from any P&R site. Here are links to buy a monthly, quarterly, or annual parking permit and to buy discounted parking permits if you have already purchased a bus pass.

• Trains: If you are coming from outside of Oxford, check the National Rail site to see what trains are available for your trip. If you travel between the same two stations frequently, season tickets are available. National Railway also offers a variety of railcards that save you 1/3 of the price of your tickets.

• Liftsharing: Since many people in the county will be looking for different commuting options, this may be a good opportunity to see if others at work or your child’s school are interested in liftsharing. There are formal tools to help with this, such as Liftshare For Work for employers and the HomeRun App for schools. Liftshares can also be set up more informally with WhatsApp groups or post code maps.

• Biking: As traffic lessens, it will become even safer and easier to bike in Oxford. If you’re looking to get a bike, there are several options. You can buy a used bike from a service like Byke for as little as £30. You can also rent bikes from Byke for £20 per month or through services like Donkey Republic that allow you to rent on a pay as you go basis. If you’re looking for a deal on a new bike, see if your employer participates in the Cycle to Work scheme, which allows you to lease a bicycle and pay for it with a monthly salary reduction. This saves you money on your contributions to income tax, national insurance, and pension. If your employer participates in Cycle to Work, you can also lease an e-bike through Dash for as little as £29 per month. This includes the bike, maintenance, theft insurance, and a helmet and lock. If you’re looking for a quiet route to cycle, check out this helpful online cycling map of Oxford.

• Voi scooters: For a quick trip, you can rent a motorized Voi scooter in many locations around Oxford. You can pay by the ride, buy a day pass for £8, or get a monthly pass for £40-55.

• Taxis, car club vehicles, motorbikes, and mopeds are exempt from the filters.

People won’t suddenly swap to buses if buses are unreliable and slow because they are caught up in lots of traffic. We’ve added all the bus lanes possible on arterial roads, so the only remaining way to speed up buses is to reduce congestion. Fundamentally, we can’t reduce congestion without less driving. If we reduce congestion, buses will speed up, and be more reliable, and then people will have a genuine alternative to their cars.

The same is true of bikes. The biggest barrier to people starting cycling is the fear of being hit by a car. By reducing car numbers, we can make more space for proper cycle lanes and junction redesign. People will feel safer, cycle more, and use their car less.

We’re in a negative cycle right now. To create positive cycles where people have alternatives, we need to make car use less convenient, otherwise we are stuck.

We can spend a long time rejecting one solution, and then another, and then another. In that time, more houses will have been built, more cars will be on the road, and people’s habits and lives will be built around driving. We need to make a specific change before this happens.

A traffic filter is a short stretch of road where a camera “reads” a car number plate. Traffic filters will be in six locations across Oxford starting in late 2024. Anyone with a free pass or an exemption will be able to drive through them without being fined.

Bus gates are in the very centre of Oxford, and only buses and taxis are allowed to pass through them. We have had them since 1973 (Cornmarket) and 1999 (High Street), and there are now five in total. Many more people can drive through traffic filters than through bus gates.

LTNs (Low Traffic Neighborhoods) are areas where most motorised traffic is prevented from taking shortcuts through a residential area in order to create quieter and safer streets for residents. This is achieved by placing bollards or cameras at points on the streets in this area. Only specific keyholders, such as emergency, waste and postal services, can travel through these points. Many more people can drive through traffic filters than LTNs. Traffic filters also do not cover a wide area and never use physical barriers, unlike LTNs.

Traffic is expected to drop by 20% inside the ring road and by 30% in Oxford’s city centre as a result of the traffic filters. This means that buses will get faster and more reliable. Oxfordshire’s bus companies have pledged to reinvest all productivity savings from the filters into improving bus services in Oxfordshire.

As a direct result of the traffic filters, Oxfordshire’s bus companies have made or are in the process of making the following improvements:

• Upgrading 159 diesel buses in their fleet to new zero-emission electric buses

• Creating new bus routes—from the first day the filters turn on, a new orbital service 600 will be added that runs from Redbridge P&R – Oxford Science Park – Cowley – Headington – JR Hospital – Thornhill P&R

• Improving bus routes—from the first day the filters turn on there will be added weekend service to orbital 700, increased frequency on H2, 3A, and X40, a faster and more direct route for 5A, and increased frequency of P&R buses on weekends and holidays

While there’s projected to be a 20% drop in traffic within the ring road, this doesn’t mean there will be a proportional rise in traffic on the ring road. The capacity of the ring road is larger and not all of the cars that would normally be driving through the filters will be moving to the ring road. Instead, some people will:

• use their passes to drive through the filters

• have an exemption that allows them to drive through the filters

• use buses or Park & Ride

• take the train

• cycle, walk or wheel

• liftshare

• combine trips so they are making less frequent longer trips to Oxford instead of more frequent shorter trips

• change the time of their journey

• not make the trip

The traffic filters are projected to lower air pollution levels in 67 out of 74 monitored locations. These effects are greatest in areas where large numbers of people are living, working, shopping, and walking about. This takes pollution away from schools where children are sitting all day, and houses where babies are sleeping at night.

This drop in air pollution is anticipated because of the 20% expected drop in traffic within the ring road, as well as the switch to a zero-emissions electric bus fleet that is a direct result of the traffic filters.

Also, not all of the cars that would normally be driving through the filters will not be shifting elsewhere and driving longer. Instead, some people will:

• use their passes to drive through the filters

• have an exemption that allows them to drive through the filters

• use buses or Park & Ride

• take the train

• cycle, walk or wheel

• liftshare

• combine trips so they are making less frequent longer trips to Oxford instead of more frequent shorter trips

• change the time of their journey

• not make the trip