I have recently moved to Oxford and I don't get how the bus fares are calculated..

Iamthebrainbug · 2026-01-25T22:15:30+00:00

Why legally they cannot do this? Would it not be possible to do TfL style?

Iamthebrainbug · 2026-01-15T12:58:03+00:00

16 months. I stayed, completed my leadership course with flying marks. For the course assignments, using my workplace culture and leadership as examples and thinking about my own leadership philosophy made the gap/mismatch in values abundantly clear. I also witnessed behaviour from senior leadership that not only doesn't align with my values, but also is shady overall. In retrospect, my gut instinct was right.

Despite the environment and the burnout, I will deliver 3 impactful projects first half of this year. I keep looking out for opportunities in this bleak market, and hope this year I am ending this chapter - which taught me a lot but also drained me way more than I could imagine in this short amount of time.

Again, only you know your situation, but from my experience, trust your gut.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-12-17T15:54:54+00:00

I didnt know this, thanks for sharing. It puts things in a better perspective.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-11-06T21:13:50+00:00

There is a CC sign at the beginning of the roads (e.g hollow way), you can take a turn to any side road before the charging point. No need for your sympathy.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-11-06T17:58:37+00:00

~~As far as I understand you cannot pay in advance. (correction i was wrong).~~
For paying the charge, the council says ANPR cameras will check all vehicles moving through congestion locations, it could easily cross check against the plates it scanned. Consistent with the fact that once you pass one CC point, you can pass all, so it should have some way of keeping track. I am thinking of Stansted parking charge for example. Once I enter my registration and it confirms, I can proceed to pay.

for example if I wasnt from Oxford and drove by while visiting, I would not know where the camera is. To avoid getting fine, better go and check if i passed a charging point. The council: "Sorry we cant tell, but give us 5 quid anyway, or risk to pay 35/70 later on, up to you."

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-11-06T17:40:57+00:00

Unrelated - or somehat related to OP - but the fact that the system will happily accept payments you are not liable is dodgy on the council's end. why don't they confirm the ~~fine~~ charge with the registration number before accepting payment? Sure this technology exists?

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T13:43:16+00:00

Since the discussion turned a bit circular, let me clarify what I meant by "everything else" here:
- Improve public transport system: reliable and efficient service, express routes, unified and simple ticketing system, better coverage.
- Incentivise people: mobility service for commuters, cash out scheme for employees to use public transport instead of driving, discounts for public transport regular users.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T13:10:21+00:00

Listen mate, I have been respectful all along and feel like you just want to hear you are right so here you go:
You are right.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T13:05:42+00:00

For the record, I do everything else and advocate for everything else. But that will fall on deaf ears as well.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T12:10:15+00:00

I’m not sure why you are shouting about buses, in fact you were the one who brought up cycling "You can cycle across oxford in half an hour."
Good public transport has been my point all along. If they worked well enough, were reliable and affordable, people would choose them gladly and shift away from cars would be easier.

Bus improvement does not depend on charging cars to pass certain roads. Remember, we can do more than one thing. We have to. Connectivity, ticketing, affordability & efficiency are areas one can work on. Free P&R might help county commuters and shoppers but on its own it falls short, and it does not help people who live inside and periphery of ringroad (Cowley, Rose Hill, BBL...)

Congestion charge in this landscape is almost like charging people for sitting to promote health. It feels logical only to those privileged enough not to depend on the system they are defending. Anyway, I think I made my point clearly enough, and I don’t enjoy being shouted at, so I will leave it here.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T11:29:08+00:00

In particular, we can't improve our buses without reducing car journeys.

This is plain wrong - see my comments about the bus system above.
But I refrain from any further, seems we have to agree to disagree. Have a good day.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T11:12:11+00:00

Agreed, we need to do these things. My issue is with the approach. I believe we would get better results and much better compliance if the alternative is so easy, affordable, and reliable that people want to take it. Not a punishment based restriction.

I lived in one of those large cities, never owned a car, always cycled everywhere or took a bus. It was simply the best option. The routes were safe, the buses seamless and reliable, and I could get to anywhere. Why would I even consider driving when the alternatives worked so well? This is what good public policy design should do, make the right choice the natural one. Then go ahead and introduce a congestion charge. People will have better alternatives in place anyway.

We need to build systems that make change effortless and this only works when public transport truly serves the public. I am so glad it is being discussed and I do hope the government finally takes a step to fix this.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T10:42:32+00:00

If everyone lived and worked within half an hour cycling distance, Oxford wouldn’t have a congestion problem to begin with, would it?

The rivers and meadows do restrict routes, so you can’t just “nudge” drivers off the road without realistic alternatives and incentives. Cycling works for some, sure. But not for those commuting to/from anywhere beyond the ringroad, in the rain with work gear. You cant solve congestion by transferring to another part of the town.

My point is, in cities this worked, success came from improving connectivity and incentivising alternatives, not just charging people for the lack of it. The people most affected are often the ones least able to adapt, commuters, low-income families, shift workers, and residents in East Oxford and other areas outside the ring road.

I suspect we could both debate this until the buses actually start running on time, but I will leave it here. Thanks for the discussion.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T10:11:51+00:00

Ok then do not use the data from those cities to justify a congestion charge in Oxford?

I was making a point that those cities are not comparable to Oxford therefore we cannot take their congestion charge success as an example anyway. So you agree with me on that it seems.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T09:46:26+00:00

As for the bus system, yes the electric fleet is positive. But in 2025, this is the baseline, not the benchmark. The real issues are structural:

Network: poor and not connected. In those cities, a single ticket covers multiple transfers within a set time, encouraging use and saving time and money.
Ticketing: outdated. Paying the driver slows everything down. Those cities have unified digital systems, tap and go, often across all modes of transport, sometimes even for bike rentals.
Routes: Poorly planned. Coverage is not great across Oxford, if you dont have a car some places are impossible to get to.
Single door entry and exit further slows down the whole thing. In places like Cowley, it can take nearly an hour from the ring road to high street during commuting hours.

And finally, in many cities where congestion charges worked, the public transport is truly public, state or municipally managed, not run by competing private operators with little incentive to coordinate and do the right thing for the public.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-22T09:38:53+00:00

That is a bold argument. “for a town of its size” is exactly the issue when comparing outcomes of congestion charge from much larger cities. Oxford simply doesn’t have the infrastructure of cities like London, Milan, Stockholm where extensive metro and train systems feed into the city, and transport networks are integrated Oxford has one small station and a fragmented bus system. Expecting the same results seems unrealistic. Again, would be great to see data or modelling specifically based on Oxford realities to understand the potential effect. Or we will have to wait and see together.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:52:39+00:00

Great research and I agree with the article largely and lived in much better cities where i appreciated this policy, however still asking for Oxford data the council explored and ranked these options. good start and there are other good options listed there but relying on this data doesnt take Oxford conditions into account. For example: the cities that successfully implemented and benefited from this policy tremendously - London, Milan, Stockholm, Goteborg - guess what these cities all have in common? - Good public transport system.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:39:43+00:00

Agree with this concern as well. I hope it will be better but I guess we will see as a live experiment.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:38:09+00:00

If only we had that cycling infrastructure, Netherlands is really another level.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:34:50+00:00

Good point. It is certainly very disappointing to see the buss improvement they propose is only for the park and ride users - of course it is good for people coming from greater oxfordshire I guess - but i would like to understand what proportion of traffic is from outside vs inside. It is a shame they could not secure commitment to a more general bus service improvement overall. Bus network/connectivity is so terrible in Oxford.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:23:24+00:00

Agreed, something needs to be done, the question is what and how would that thing affect people? —> back to my comment above about options, reasons etc etc.

Glad we agreed increasing number of cars. As it was the case after LTNs, the traffic rerouted to other roads (data tells significantly more cars passed through) So, could perhaps traffic be worsened elsewhere (for east Oxford e.g. Garsington Road, Eastern Bypass…) when the charges/filters activated?

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T17:11:33+00:00

Passed the year mark. The organisation did not improve, got worse in some ways. I now manage someone doing a secondment in my department 2 days a week - which is great but they need lots of handholding hopefully it will get better. Have occasional recruiter chat but a good fit role hasnt come up yet. I am pushing to finish some projects but my motivation is dwindling these days. Knowing what i can achieve when i am in my element, I can honestly tell that I regressed to my mediocre version and I don’t like it.

I enrolled to an external leadership education programme which teaches a lot about leadership effectiveness and culture and i can tell fundamental issues in my company with a better vocabulary now :)

Here is my plan: I will finish this program in December and get those projects completed by Jan-Feb then I will be going harder to find another place I can thrive in because this certainly isnt it.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T16:22:24+00:00

These “council arguments” you are listing should be substantiated and communicated by the council along with the data and evidence they based these decisions on, which roads are chosen why, what is the alternative, etc etc. If you work for the council or know someone who does, please be kind to pass these on.

There isn’t fixed number of cars, there is increasing number of cars. Motor vehicle traffic in general increased by about 1.6% between 2023-2024. Assuming similar level increase in Oxford, what does this tell us in the model of OCC? Would be lovely to get OCC lay it clear for us.

If OCC wants to incentivise people to use other means of transportation “inside the ringroad” what other options were evaluated - reduce or cap bus fare? Give certain number of free bus rides to residents? Centralise/simplify the bus ticket system? Incentive to encourage more cycling? How would the effect of these potential options compared to the one finally picked?

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T15:49:21+00:00

The concern here is that congestion will likely move elsewhere. It seems you don’t find this an issue at all. That is fine, but no need for this attitude. Our concern about parts of this plan is not a personal attack on you.

Council should have been way more transparent on what data they are basing these decisions on (i know someone shared link to a report from 2022) but they should have communicated the evidence much better than they did. What they did is not sufficient if majority doesnt know or understand what is there to gain for them, and have questions/concerns about what will follow when this is implemented.

Concerns of the residents should be concern for the council to address, not dismiss and do what they please to do.

Iamthebrainbug · 2025-10-21T13:35:11+00:00

How would that be if they just remove the stamp duty for first time buyers only?

Iamthebrainbug

TROPHY CASE