Oxfordshire Strategic Active Travel Network (SATN) Project/Consultancy Brief

Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) is seeking to appoint a consultant to produce a Strategic Active Travel Network (SATN) for Oxfordshire. The SATN was designated as a priority workstream by the OCC Active Travel Programme Board in March 2021 and fits with the objectives of the new OCC administration.

The SATN will be part of a wider set of strategic and policy work aimed at improving the way active travel infrastructure is designed, implemented and maintained. OCC is currently developing its new Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) which, along with its supporting strategies, will set out the direction, policies and objectives to be pursued in the following years. The underlying ambition across all of these documents is to enable a radical transformation in travel patterns; specifically, a reduction of trips by cars and other private motorised vehicles and an increase in active travel and use of public transport.

From a strategic perspective, active travel is currently being planned primarily through Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP's). At present, three LCWIP's have been approved in Oxfordshire (Oxford, Bicester and Kidlington) and four more are at different stages of development (Banbury, Witney, Abingdon and Didcot), with the aim of completing them throughout 2022-23. OCC is planning to roll out further LCWIP's in the coming years, following a prioritisation exercise that will consider resident population, key trip generators and major development sites. The SATN will help to provide an indication of important strategic routes in rural parts of the county where LCWIPs are unlikely to be developed.

The Oxfordshire Cycling Network (OCN), a network of local cycling groups and campaigners, developed a proposal for a "Strategic Cycling Network for Oxfordshire" in 2017 . This has been a major inspiration for the prioritisation of SATN as a strategic project for active travel development in the county. OCC is expecting that OCN's methodology and proposed routes will be an important starting point for the SATN.