Looking at Oxford Road as being the busiest bus route in Europe, we are trying to tackle how to reduce the number of buses that travel down this route. Being such a busy and highly used connection between the student district, Fallowfield, and the University Campus, it has its problems.
The main issue is the negative impact that this has on the environment, with all the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted by the traffic. It is known that a bus passes every 30 seconds on the 3.7 mile route. We wish to attempt to introduce a greener and environmentally friendly scheme, that will cut down on the number of buses being used and to completely eliminate the use of cars down this road.
Other problems associated with this route include:
• Severe traffic created during peak school/work hours that cause journeys for students sometimes lasting up to 40 mins and averaging at about 30 mins. (This is almost the time taken to walk the equal distance)
• Student costs for a bus pass. Quite expensive to acquire a yearly pass and not worth the mental stress of delays and traffic congestion.
• Constant maintenance of the road at different points causing more inconvenience and adds to the delays and negative pollution.
• Mental stress, mentioned earlier could possibly be a larger issue than many people are aware of. Being caught in unexpected delays on the bus route with submission deadlines is something students face on a daily basis.
In our scheme, we wish to limit the number of buses by 75%, thereby having buses at each bus stop every 2 minutes, rather than once every 30 seconds. This will lower carbon emissions tremendously. With eliminating the use of cars, or redirecting them to the outer roads, more people will be encouraged to walk to university.
This is where our scheme of introducing a travelator will be more encouraging for students and others to walk to university. The travelators will make it possible for students to reach university from their accomodationin in an acceptable amount of time. They will double your walking speed, thus cutting travel time in half. As stated earlier, they are designed so that they have multiple points to get on and off the travelator, so people living at any point along Oxford road may benefit from it. The area in which people walk under would be sheltered and most importantly covered in solar panels in order to generate its own power to keep it going. This makes it a sustainable development, which would greatly cuts carbon emission.
Other issues that this system is aimed at improving is the traffic congestion, in particular, and to create a smoother circulatory route for both residents and students. More people are encouraged to walk to university and improve their lifestyles. This could lead to a better social network, more people meeting one another and creating a friendlier environment.
