Oxford's Temporary Congestion Charge Is GO! | An OLS Deep Dive
The Temporary Congestion Charge launches today — a bold step to decongest Oxford’s roads and get buses moving again. In this blog: what’s changed since consultation, some practical ways to support, healthy provocation on FAIRNESS, and a big dose of perspective.
🚦 What changed after the consultation period?
As we know, consultations aren’t a ‘yes or no’ moment but an opportunity to shape a proposal with constructive feedback from communities.
Here’s a quick summary of what changed after the six-week consultation (23 Jun–3 Aug 2025) before approval and in the tidy-up decisions that followed:
Free Park & Ride bus travel extended to three months (from 29 Oct) for up to 2 adults + 3 children per ticket.
New free permit types added: for business pool cars and active sports/military training members in the central permit area.
Refined eligibility and clarifications: e.g. emergency services are exempt, Workplace permits are now stricter, HMO/student housing rules clarified, and nursery parents in the central area are now included.
For more detail, head here for the latest
Main page for the Temporary Congestion Charge scheme https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-travel/oxfords-temporary-congestion-charge-cars
Exemptions & permits https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-travel/oxfords-temporary-congestion-charge-cars/exemptions-and-permits
👥 Help your community, colleagues and employees adapt
The Oxford Travel Options website is the one-stop-shop for travel information, advice and inspiration for anyone who lives in, works in or visits Oxford - all in one place.
It has now been updated with a page on the Temporary Congestion Charge, but this is just the beginning - the team behind the site have put a call out for updates and this website will evolve as a central resource to guide residents, businesses, and visitors. If you have any suggestions email editor@lcon.org.uk - this is a living evolving site built for the benefit of Oxford residents, employers, workers and visitors.
Quick actions people can take now.
Employers: Add the site to staff travel pages, onboarding, and visitor info.
Residents: Share the Travel Options Website link via WhatsApp or neighbourhood email lists.
Hospitality: Promote free Park & Ride in customer bookings.
Don’t forget the Cyclox Cycle Map - a great resource for navigating Oxford on wheels.
🚲 Active travel call-out : local knowledge wanted!
We’d like to collect recommendations from the community for family and commuter-friendly bike/walk routes that avoid charge points and minimise mixing with heavy traffic. If you ride these streets daily and have gold-dust tips (quiet connectors, cut-throughs, safer junction sequences), please email us your route with: start/finish, and any time-of-day caveats. We’ll credit contributors and package this up to share with the Travel Options site team
📩 Send your tips to: info@oxfordshireliveablestreets.org
📊 Monitoring: what OCC will track—and why it matters
For those who want to keep an eye on how the scheme is going, OCC has published a concise Monitoring Plan . The intent is to publish data regularly (monthly where possible) and use it to make pragmatic adjustments. Remember: the congestion charge is explicitly temporary and designed as a bridge to the traffic filters; monitoring helps surface benefits, issues, and fixes quickly.
Monitoring will check for:
Movement & reliability. Are traffic flows and congestion changing, and does that improve bus journey times and levels of cycling/walking? Are there gains for road safety and air quality?
Downsides to watch. Any displacement/re-routing that harms network performance, air quality, road safety or local centres?
Fairness lenses. Are impacts falling unevenly on protected groups or on businesses?
Surprises. Any unintended or unpredicted effects the models didn’t anticipate?
According to OCC Officer Aaron Wisdom, there won’t be any reports published in the first weeks as data needs to be collected and analysed. Any news on where the data will be published will be shared on the Congestion Charge Main Page. Check back at the end of November! We will be!
⚖️ Fairness: The Congestion Charge Battleground
With those who oppose the congestion charge arguing it’s unfair — and those who support it also doing so in the name of fairness — it’s fair to say that fairness became the battleground of this campaign. Fair?
At Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, fairness isn’t a slogan. It’s a design principle and a monitoring lens. We campaigned in support of the Congestion Charge principally to get Oxford’s buses moving again.
In this context, fairness straddles several dimensions:
Spatial justice : ensuring fair access to our roads and public space across neighbourhoods and modes of transport.
Equity across groups : making sure the impacts of the charge aren’t disproportionately felt by any one cohort.
Equity of mode : avoiding unintended bias in policy or infrastructure that rewards car use over cleaner, fairer alternatives.
Liveable Streets Campaigner and OLS Director Hannah Kirby, also co-Chair of the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel, has been nerding it out on pricing and exploring how the final shape of the scheme might have shifted incentives.
What if — in trying to be fair — the exemptions and tweaks now unintentionally incentivise driving, even for short trips?
Early findings suggest that:
➡️ Some short trips may now be cheaper by car than by bus.
E.g. a driver entering the charging zone for £5 may pay less than two people making a return bus trip without a season ticket — even with Park & Ride discounts.
➡️ Park & Ride discounts only apply to those who drive — not walk, cycle, or bus in.
E.g. a family of five can drive to Thornhill Park & Ride and travel into the city and back for just £5. Yet a family of five who boards the same bus at Brookes University would pay £10 or more, simply because they didn’t drive to the Park & Ride.
➡️ Multi-modal journeys aren’t supported or incentivised under current pricing.
E.g. someone cycling to a Park & Ride to catch a bus must pay full bus fare — while those who drive get discounted travel included. This misses an opportunity to reward low-carbon travel habits.
These details matter — because they shape behaviour and perception. It is not only vital that the beneficiaries of the congestion charge are bus users, but that pricing supports spacial justice, equity across groups, and equity across modes.
A longer report is in the works, offering constructive suggestions on how Congestion Charge revenue could be more equitably applied. But for now, we’re advocating for fairness to remain central in monitoring, messaging, and iterative design all the while encouraging patience.
💡 An OLS Perspective | Test. Listen. Learn.
As we laid out in our Cabinet address on September 10th: systems change is hard. Modelling helps, but the street system will always surprise us. So: deliver → monitor → listen → adapt. This scheme is temporary and intended to transition to traffic filters once Botley Road reopens. The job now is practical, transparent iteration, with fairness and usability front and centre.
“Systems change is hard. It’s messy. It takes courage and a lot of listening, learning, and adapting.”
We also need a hefty dose of perspective. This is a temporary measure to keep Oxford moving while the longer-term fix is readied. Success isn’t “no change felt” - it’s faster buses, safer streets, cleaner air, and clearer routes for those who must drive - with fairness built-in and evidenced. So, let’s keep an eye on the big picture - If we keep listening and adjusting, the benefits can compound quickly.
This feels like a good moment to share two relevant case-studies from London and Stockholm and a final finisher with a link to support the new campaign for a bus station!
London:
After its introduction in 2003, the London Congestion Charge reduced traffic volume by 18% during charging hours, cut congestion by 30%, and boosted bus use by 33%. It also led to a 10% shift to walking, cycling, and public transport. However, initial reductions in traffic and delays are often observed, but congestion can sometimes return to previous levels over time, as seen in London, highlighting the need for ongoing monitoring and potential adjustments to the scheme
Source link
Source link
The Stockholm Congestion Tax case study highlights the importance of public communication, demonstrating how a temporary trial and clear messaging about revenue reinvestment can significantly shift public opinion and lead to successful permanent implementation. Public support for the tax rose significantly after residents experienced benefits like reduced traffic and improved air quality during a trial period.Whilst the Oxford Congestion Charge is temporary, it will transition to the traffic filters which is essentially the same. Read more about international case studies on public communication and congestion charges here
🚌 P.S. More buses = less congestion!
So, we campaigned in favour of the Congestion Charge to get Oxford’s buses moving again. Critical to buses moving around are, however, great connections and interchanges. That’s why we’re backing the call for a proper bus-rail interchange at Oxford Station. 🥳
Right now, Network Rail’s plans for redevelopment focus on car parking — not public transport. 👎🏽
But there's still time to shape the vision:
👉🏽 Read more on the CoHSAT blog here
👉🏽 Sign the petition by Oxon4Buses here
Let's make sure we don’t miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity.