{"id":34343,"date":"2025-10-01T22:33:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34343"},"modified":"2025-10-01T22:33:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T21:33:53","slug":"plans-to-improve-cycling-or-walking-through-abingdon-town-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=34343","title":{"rendered":"Plans to Improve Cycling or Walking Through Abingdon Town Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025100103.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nNational Route 5 of the National Cycle Network runs all the way from Reading to Holyhead \u2013 and right through Abingdon. But here in town it has never quite lived up to the standard you\u2019d expect of a national route. The paths in and out of Abingdon have been resurfaced in recent years, but there\u2019s still room for improvement between St Helen\u2019s Church and the Abbey Gateway. At the moment, cyclists have to take a long detour and then dismount \u2013 so many instead risk heading the wrong way up East St Helen Street.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025100102.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOxfordshire County Council has now published plans to improve things. The aim is to make cycling and walking through the town centre safer, with a new contraflow on East St Helen Street to legitimise what some cyclists already do.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag25\/2025100101.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe scheme also looks to sort out the junction at the top of East St Helen Street, improving it for people on foot, on bikes, or using mobility scooters. An outline was first put forward by local cycling enthusiasts, then refined by transport specialists \u2013 and now it\u2019s open for wider comment through a public consultation.\u00a0The junction plans include additional zebra crossings and the use of an enlarged island in the middle.<\/p>\n<p>More crossings do mean more time when traffic has to stop, slowing traffic coming up Bridge Street or along Stert Street, where there are already other pedestrian lights.<\/p>\n<p>The funding is already secured: a \u00a31.47 million government grant from the Active Travel Fund will cover design and construction.<\/p>\n<p>The public consultation runs from 30 September to 28 October 2025, with drop-in events at the Guildhall on:<br \/>\nSaturday 11 October, 10am\u20133pm<br \/>\nTuesday 14 October, 4pm\u20137pm<\/p>\n<p>A consultation report is expected in December. Final designs should follow in spring 2026, with construction due to start that spring and finish by summer 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Details and the online consultation can be found at: <a href=\"https:\/\/letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk\/east-st-helens-street-active-travel\">www.oxfordshire.gov.uk\/eaststhelenstreet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Route 5 of the National Cycle Network runs all the way from Reading to Holyhead \u2013 and right through Abingdon. But here in town it has never quite lived up to the standard you\u2019d expect of a national route. The paths in and out of Abingdon have been resurfaced in recent years, but there\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-road-works"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34343","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=34343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}