Category: News

Me and my cargo bike

By Kathryn McNicoll

“I’m not a cyclist, I am a busy mother and transport was a problem to be solved.” This is what Liz says about herself, meaning she didn’t grow up on and around bikes as her husband did. However, the birth of her first child and the need, for a while, to cross the city at busy times meant a solution to the traffic problem had to be found.

Welcome changes to The Highway Code

By Andy Chivers

The Highway Code changes on Saturday 29th January. These changes are going to affect everyone because they include a new ‘hierarchy of road users’ (H1, H2, H3). The hierarchy states that road users with the greatest risk of causing harm to others, hold the greatest level of responsibility to reduce the danger they pose to others.

Oxford to Blenheim Palace by bike

By Andy Chivers

This weekend my family wanted to go for a walk in Blenheim Palace grounds as the winter weather was so lovely. Setting off from Oxford by bike our journey has been transformed by the wonderful new surface on the canal towpath from Hythe Bridge St to the A44 bridge over the canal near Yarnton, a distance of nearly 4 miles.

Two common myths about cycling

By Steve Unwin

What image comes up when you think: ‘bicycle’? Something with two wheels, a saddle and handlebars? Think again.

New Year’s cycling resolutions

By Alison Hill

As we say goodbye to 2021 – a challenging year for so many – and welcome in 2022 we asked our members what their cycling resolutions are for this year. We got some wonderful responses…

A Christmas guide to giving on yer bike

By Andy Chivers

Remember being given your first bicycle? What a joy it was to get! Bike ownership marking that rite of passage, an independent form of transport, the fun and freedom of it.

How to overtake a person on a bike

By Andy Chivers

But there is one vehicle that all drivers will overtake sooner or later: a bicycle. It is an offence to pass a cyclist with less than 1.5m gap (also known as a ‘close pass’).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

By Andy Chivers

Winter approaches, and with it the inescapable seasonal songs in praise of white Christmases. Cyclists may feel differently and cold weather is generally a big turn off for many. Paradoxically, commuting by bike when the weather is bad gives you even more benefit because the traffic is more gummed up than usual and those travelling by bike will be even further ahead of the jam.

Woodstock Road Improvements

By Alison Hill

The Woodstock Road in Oxford is a beautiful long road with fine old Victorian houses on the southern end, and shaded by trees lining the roadside and overhanging from gardens and playing fields. But as with all our main roads into the city, it is blighted by long traffic queues morning and evening, creating jams, rat-running through residential streets, pollution and noise.

The Oxford ‘Cycling City’ Signs

By Jake Backus

Every so often someone complains, quotes or holds up the Oxford ‘Cycling City’ signs as if they are a declaration of an achievement, some sort of fake news and an unsubstantiated affirmation. Oxford is clearly not a nirvana for people to cycle, so why make the claim?