Saturday 4 January 2014

Oxford – the cycle friendly City




Having recently moved to Oxford from the wilds of car worshipping West Kent I am enjoying your cycle friendly city. The majority of drivers are brilliant – bus drivers in particular are very considerate of cyclists. Yes, you get the few Neanderthals who try to run cyclists off the road or deny them space, but overall cycling here is a joy.

But even Oxford could improve the environment for cyclists. Local cycling campaign Cyclox is not impressed with the City Council’s proposals to improve the layout of a major round about ‘The Plain’. See their ideas of how to improve the roundabout for cyclists here:

Other measures to improve cycling have been suggested by Green Party Peer and member of the London Assembly Jenny Jones:

She continues her campaign for presumed liability: in an accident cyclists and pedestrians would automatically be entitled to compensation unless there was proof of fault or alternatively the Dutch version where the driver is automatically 50% liable. She also argues for more widespread use of driving bans as punishment and for longer bans.  

My personal favourite is her plea for Advanced Stop Lines to be treated the same as yellow box junctions with the offence being decriminalised so that enforcement can be done by local authorities. Do have a look at the web site below for more detail on her cycle friendly proposals.

So yes, there are a few inconsiderate drivers even in Oxford, but the vast majority are extremely considerate towards cyclists – thank you.

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