To add to the traffic misery and mayhem that all road-users have to suffer in and around Oxford, from now until Christmas we have to endure roadworks all through Marston Village as well, to introduce traffic calming. This is a measure that has been talked about for years, in response to the complaints of people living in the village about drivers using the road as a rat run. It's true that the village suffers a high incidence of illegal and dangerous driving. First there are all those vehicles that shouldn't be driving through at all, but just ignore the 'Access Only' signs at both ends of the village. Then there are the many who break the 30 mph speed limit. Then there are the drivers who, approaching a section where the road is narrow because of parked cars, and it's impossible to see oncoming traffic, don't slow down but put their foot down instead. I have even, and often, seen drivers who instead of slowing down in the face of oncoming traffic, drive up on the pavement and continue at full speed along Oxford Road. It's a miracle no child or elderly person has come out of their front gate and been mown down and killed on the pavement, in recent years. So clearly there is an urgent demand for something to be done.
But I've yet to hear anyone who thinks the proposed traffic calming measures are the right way forward. In fact, I don't know who wants traffic calming, or who it is that has such influence with the council that it's being bulldozed through like this. When we were 'consulted' about the proposals, many of us told the council officials that we didn't like this scheme and didn't think it would work. But it's going ahead anyhow. I suspect that the only reason is that the Council need to be seen to be doing something, even if it is highly likely to make the situation worse instead of better.
Why do drivers use the village as a rat run? Because of the congestion on Marsh Lane and Cherwell Drive. Introducing traffic calming in Marston Village is supposed to deter them, by making this route less attractive. In other words, the Council can't improve the situation by making traffic flow more freely at the Marsh Lane - Cherwell Drive junction, so they take steps to reduce an alternative route to a standstill as well. Not only is this not going to force the rat-runners to mend their ways; it's also going to make life even more inconvenient for legitimate users of Oxford and Elsfield Roads: those who live in Marston Village and have to get out in the morning, and those who have business there. Why do we have to put up with this, just because the Council are unable to solve the real problems of Oxford's traffic chaos?
The fact is, though, that there is probably no power on earth that could solve Oxford's traffic problems. They are the result of generations of decisions and outcomes that seemed like a good idea at the time, and may have brought short term good, but also compounded longer term difficulties. The University, the layout of the city's road network, people's need for work and housing, and Green Belt restrictions that restricted their options, the development of Oxford's hospitals, our love for the motor car in preference to public transport - and so on.
If it's so difficult to solve something as local and trivial as Oxford's traffic problems, is it any wonder if it is beyond human wit and wisdom to solve the big, important problems of the world? Such things as climate change, the energy crisis, the Middle East, global poverty, AIDS? When we criticize our leaders, their fault is not (or not always) that they are wrong to want the things they do, but that, being human, they simply do not know what to do, to solve the intractable problems of the world.
It would be very easy, when we read the local or world news, to sink into a feeling of utter hopelessness. This is why the most important Christian virtue that the world needs at this time, is Hope. I 'hope' that I may have to eat my words, and that traffic calming may solve all the traffic problems of Marston. (Though I'm not holding my breath.) But much more important than that, is to embrace the real Hope that, in spite of all the bad news that assails us day by day, God's Kingdom may prevail, and with it the thriving of humanity, and the whole of creation, that God desires. An essential part of Hope, is doing what we can to achieve those ends, no matter how small that contribution may seem. Jesus said that God's Kingdom is like a seed as tiny as a mustard seed, but from it can grow something big enough to give blessings to the whole world.
Published in the Marston Times, October 2006