Is Headington the worst shopping area in Oxford for pedestrians?

We all want our local shopping areas to thrive, and for them to be places we want to spend time in, places that are accessible and welcoming, even places we can be proud of. Does Headington match this bill? Do you like spending time in Headington? Do you find it easy to get around the shops and businesses here?

Oxford Pedestrians Association (OxPA) is a group that campaigns to make Oxford a better place to walk and wheel. The group carries out audits of the walking environment in various places around Oxford, including an audit of Headington centre.

Recounting the findings of the Headington audit, Sushila Dhall, Chair of OxPA, said:

“Headington was the worst overall pedestrian experience. What makes Headington shops the most challenging of Oxford's shopping environments is a combination of waiting times to cross, wide roads, cluttered pavements, and the ceaseless roar and smell of motorised traffic.”

Headington fares particularly badly on pedestrian crossing waiting times, with some of the longest delays for pedestrians in Oxford. OxPA reports that at Windmill Road the wait times seem to vary according to the time of day and how many people push the buttons, but the lights consistently favour traffic movements. When the buttons are pushed continuously, the average traffic flow time is 50 seconds and the average crossing time 10 seconds. 50 seconds is longer to wait to cross than most places OxPA has audited in Oxford city. Only two that OxPA has surveyed are longer:

• One, also in Headington, is the crossing at the entrance to the John Radcliffe Hospital off Headley Way where pedestrians wait 54 seconds to cross halfway, then 44 seconds to cross the rest of the way (a total of 98 seconds).
• The other is at the bottom of Marston Ferry Road where to cross west to east from Banbury Road to Marston Ferry Road the wait is 84 seconds.

Below we have reproduced the audit carried out by OxPA on Monday 25 April 2022 with their permission. It’s interesting to see an objective assessment of your local area with which you are so familiar that you don’t even notice certain things any more. See if you recognise the issues mentioned by OxPA in its audit…

“Between 7.15 and 9pm we audited pavements, crossing points and walking/wheelchair accessibility in Windmill Road shopping area, Headington Shops area (both sides of London Road shops), Old High St, Kennet Rd and New High St (where the Shark is)."

“Where we started, the junction of Windmill Road and London Rd, was very noisy and smelly with motorised traffic, which was constant. Pedestrians take a long time to wait to cross, and get 7 seconds to cross. They are not encouraged to cross diagonally meaning many have to wait twice to get to where they want to be."

“On the north-east pavement, Windmill Rd shops have a nice wide-enough pavement in front of them which suddenly narrows to half width once the road becomes a residential area. ‘Il Botanic’ shop had taken the opportunity to leave out A boards which obstructed the pavement width all night. There is no way to cross to the shops on the other side beyond the busy junction. Although the road has 20mph signs, most traffic drove far faster than this. On the south west side the pavement was considerably narrowed by being very cluttered, with cycle parking and cycles, planters, A-boards, and poles."

“Old High St is a fast rat-run through residential houses. The pavements are narrow, less than 0.5m in parts, with steep pavement cambers. The road is much wider than two way traffic needs, and often functioned as one way traffic (towards the JR) at this time of day. Walking in the road where it is more spacious and level is not possible because of the rat-running. Therefore, a wheelchair user could not really use this street. The pavement is very steeply sloped leading to Waitrose car park and all driveways, and even at one place where it led to a wall. Overhanging vegetation means very little walking space at all in places. Where the pavement is taken by a tree no alternative pavement has been given around the tree. The cobbled entrance to a private building would be bumpy and difficult should a wheelchair user have to try to get along there."

“The junction of Old High St and St Andrew’s Road is extremely wide – 18m at its widest point. No crossing facility exists. In this whole area pavements are extremely narrow or non-existent, and motorised traffic is driven very fast and dominates."

“London Road is dominated by the sound and smell of heavy motorised traffic. It also seems to be a place where cyclists and escooters ride on pavements – perhaps because the road is so busy and with many lanes and continuous heavy traffic. Outside the ‘Lemon Garden’ and near ‘Oxon Groceries’, the pavement is very steeply cambered. At the north east end of the shops, towards Bury Knowle park, the pavements are suddenly level and wide and there is a zebra crossing. The pavements along most of the shopping area are, however, pretty cluttered, and split level for considerable stretches, which is odd and creates unnecessary clutter in itself."

“The bus stop area on the east side has lots of good benches, but stinks of engine fuel as many vehicles sat here with engines running; one bus and several cars."

“At the south end of the shops the wide pavement slopes steeply on both sides. A good pavement extension crosses Osler Road entrance. Cycle parking outside ‘Heavenly Desserts' is very obstructive to pedestrians. We wonder if planners when putting in cycle hoops take into account the length of the bikes that will be parked there. Escooter parking has also been placed on the pavement. Outside the NatWest bank there are strange metal hand rails seemingly arbitrarily placed across the pavement in two places."

“Kennet Road has steep uneven pavement cambers, a sign to cyclists on the pavement, and confusingly has signs indicating no traffic may enter from London Road but people may drive in both directions at the top of Kennet Road. There is a serious pavement parking problem here, considerably narrowing already too narrow pavements. Where there is a bit of cycle lane it is narrow, poorly maintained, and half of it is a gully."

“Bateman St has extremely narrow pavements (0.5m) on both sides and slopes towards the road."

“New High St, where the Shark is, is a very wide road (3 lanes) with under 2m pavements for walkers. Pavement parking is also an issue here.”

Does any of this strike a chord with your experience of Headington?

How do you think the pedestrian experience could be improved?

Given that we have the longest pedestrian crossing times in Oxford, a good and cheap place to start would be adjusting the timings on the Windmill Road/London Road crossing to reduce the waiting time for pedestrians and allow more time for them to cross. Replacing the pelican crossing outside Sainsbury’s with a zebra crossing would also seem like an obvious fix (and has a successful precedent in the zebra crossing near Stile Road), but would be expensive.

Unfortunately, motor traffic is prioritised above pedestrians and cyclists throughout Headington. Access to Headington seems to have been about maximising throughput of motor traffic through all the junctions in Headington, not improving safety or convenience for pedestrians or people wheeling or cycling.

Headington really needs a complete re-design, with junctions, crossings and side roads that prioritise people rather than cars, in line with Policy 1 of the Council’s Local Transport and Connectivity Plan, the ‘transport user hierarchy’:

It's common practice in the Netherlands and other European countries for side road entrances to prioritise pedestrians and wheelers by providing continuous, level pavements, with drivers having to slow right down to turn into them and go over an inclined kerb.

The images of Kennet Road, New High Street and Stephen Road below show how they could be redesigned with various features to prioritise pavement users and cyclists in accordance with the transport user hierarchy, removing obstacles such as cycle and scooter parking from the pavement, preventing parking on the pavement and cycle lanes, creating continuous level pavements and cycle lanes across the road entrances and providing amenities such as benches to provide resting places and trees to provide shade. (Produced using BetaStreets.)

The junction at the centre of Headington could be redesigned as a Dutch roundabout to prioritise and protect pavement users and cyclists. See 3D visualisation and 2D sketch below and our post Re-imagining Headington's roads and junctions - Headington Centre junction.

Headington Liveable Streets is currently exploring opportunities to fund independent road engineering re-designs of Headington junctions and roads to prioritise pedestrians, wheeled mobility users, cyclists and bus users, make it safe and convenient for these road users to move around, and generally make our roads and public spaces more pleasant.

If you want to see Headington improved for pedestrians, consider taking these actions:

• Join Oxford Pedestrians Association (OxPA) and/or sign up to receive their newsletters
• Email the Headington Councillors to ask for change: roz.smith@oxfordshire.gov.uk, cllrcsmowton@oxford.gov.uk; cllrmaltaf-khan@oxford.gov.uk
• Join our mailing list to keep up to date about any developments on this issue