South Oxfordshire is a predominantly rural with a high proportion of people travelling by car. In some areas there is currently insufficient road capacity to meet demand. This has led to issues with congestion, safety and air quality. There are a number of locations where significant levels of congestion occurs.

Oxfordshire County Council's Local Transport Strategy covers a five-year period from April 2006 - March 2011 and sets out a vision for transport in Oxfordshire. It focuses on five priority areas:

1. tackling congestion
2. delivering accessibility
3. safer roads
4. better air quality
5. improving the street environment.

In addition the Transport Networks Review (TNR) provides a strategy for tackling transport networks over the next 20 years.

As well as concerns about congestion in general, there are important concerns regarding safety on South Oxfordshire roads. The Local Transport Plan states "There are a range of locations and routes within South Oxfordshire where accidents occur with a higher than average frequency. The Local Transport Plan includes £2.8M of improvements in spending provision to address safety issues."

A further problem associated with road traffic is air pollution. An Air Quality Management Areas has been declared in Wallingford because standards for nitrogen dioxide, set for the protection of human health, are currently breached. The elevated levels of this pollutant are caused by road traffic, both the overall level of traffic, congestion and queuing of traffic and a relatively high proportion of Heavy Goods Vehicles in the traffic mix (which emit relatively more NO2 than other types of vehicle). Measures to deal with the Wallingford hot spot are being investigated. Nitrogen dioxide is a respiratory irritant which can exacerbate asthma.

Steven says "Traffic congestion is a significant problem in many parts of the UK. Whilst the problems here are more localised in a few problem areas they are nonetheless unacceptable. The County Council's Local Transport Plan and Transport Network's Review demonstrates that the problems are being considered and some mitigation measures are in hand but I believe more needs to be done. We cannot be complacent where the levels of road traffic accidents are higher than the national average and residents in some areas are exposed to unacceptable levels of air pollution".