h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's frightening! I was last in Oxford on December 5 last year. I well remember asking the woman in the railway station tourist information office where I could get a taxi, and her sheepish expression as she pointed to the gridlock outside and said "Well, it might be difficult..."
I did manage to find a cab, and it took nearly an hour to struggle through the traffic to Oxford United FC's ground four miles away in Headington. I got through the turnstile just in time to hear the ref blow for the kick-off, and my fellow Bradford City fans acknowledging the size and condition of the stadium with chants of "Subbuteo, Subbuteo"!
I walked back to the station after the game. Even with my level of fitness, I knew that would be the quickest way.

O, yes, a lot worse. Everything takes about five times as long as it did, and the traffic lights at the station are one of the worst offenders. They appear to be totally mindless, and solemnly give every direction the same amount of time, even if there is NOTHING waiting there. Every one just sits and watches nothing happening. Imagine that superimposed upon the gridlock you noticed last time, and there you are. Incidentally, this still happens late at night and early hours of the morning, when there is no traffic. Empty roads are given their full turn, while one car waits at one junction.

There is a simple solution to your problem. That being, DON'T DRIVE. For the last fifty odd years there have been plans to reduce the number of car in the city center, they are just being put into action now and should have the support of everyone who has any business in the city. Oxford is an ancient city and was never designed for large scale traffic, either in terms of volume or for the amount of pollution released. If the traffic is so bad try using the very good bus services instead of your car, it's what the new plans where created for.

Changing the road system is going to reduce the number of cars in another wayL all the drivers are going to get killed.
They've happily made most of the one-way streets, that everyone's been driving down for years, two-way streets. It's _very_ strange driving the "wrong way" down them. Plus, you still get _loads_ of people who forget, and charge up the right hand side of the raod against the oncomming traffic. I've had/seen loads of near misses, and of course most times the stupid driver swears at the on comming traffic insisting he's right.

Great.

No much much better. You can walk down the streets without risking life and limb (well apart from due to cyclists), its quieter, less polluted and generally more pleasant to use.

If you want to use cars in Oxford you would have to redesign the place a bit (probably by knocking down all the historic bits that attract people to the city and cause a lot of the traffic problems anyway).

Zathras