{"id":13167,"date":"2015-01-05T22:20:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T21:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=13167"},"modified":"2015-01-05T22:20:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T21:20:48","slug":"national-route-5-15-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=13167","title":{"rendered":"National Route 5 &#8211; 15 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sustrans say &#8220;National Route 5 of the National Cycle Network is a long distance route which connects Reading and Holyhead via Oxford, Banbury, Stratford-upon-Avon&#8230;&#8221; But by all accounts, National Route 5 through Abingdon does not get the repairs or priority that the prestigious name <b>National Route<\/b> should merit.<\/p>\n<p>It was opened back in the June 2000 when Mr John Disley, Oxfordshire County Council&#8217;s transport planner said &#8220;<i>The network will dramatically improve cycling facilities and will contribute greatly to the county council&#8217;s objective for increasing cycle use.<\/i>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag15\/15010504.jpg\" alt=\"National Route 5 \" \/><br \/>\nThe sign in the Abbey Meadow area still says&#8221;<i>Changes planned in Abingdon town centre as part of Integrated Transport Strategy.&#8221;<\/i> The cycling part of that strategy through the town centre never happened.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag15\/15010502.jpg\" alt=\"National Route 5 \" \/><br \/>\nSignage is worse than 15 years ago. One of the signs on West St Helen Street is only visible to pedestrians, and faces the wrong way.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag15\/15010501.jpg\" alt=\"National Route 5 \" \/><br \/>\nAnd if you do find your way from there to Lombard Street you are soon told to dismount. <\/p>\n<p>Colin Walters, a town councillor between 2007-11 made strenuous efforts to make the route through town joined up with a proposed contra-flow at the top of East st Helen Street. It was turned down, on safety grounds, and no alternative has been put forward.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag15\/15010503.jpg\" alt=\"National Route 5 \" \/><br \/>\nTo make matters worse, a car is parked on the double yellow lines (on National Route 5) where a dropped kerb would allow access to the pavement for the mobility scooter. This is in a town that has 2 hours free parking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sustrans say &#8220;National Route 5 of the National Cycle Network is a long distance route which connects Reading and Holyhead via Oxford, Banbury, Stratford-upon-Avon&#8230;&#8221; But by all accounts, National Route 5 through Abingdon does not get the repairs or priority that the prestigious name National Route should merit. It was opened back in the June [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-street-scene"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}