Cycling Cities UK | Episode 4 | Oxford

It’s episode 4 of cycling cities UK, and I’m in Oxford! This place has a great reputation for cycling, so let’s see if it lives up to the hype.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go back and watch episode 0 ‘prologue’, where I give an explanation of the scoring system and what on earth I’m up to.

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Hello there. It’s episode 4 of Cycling Cities UK and as you’ll see from the hordes of students, I’m in the city of Oxford. It has a reputation for many things. Universities, big posh buildings, and rowing very long boats to name a few. It also has the reputation for being good for cycling. But is this nonsense? Today, I’ll put that to the test. Exploring the city on my trusty steed to measure it on my six glorious criteria. Cycle lane coverage, cycle lane quality, flatness, road friendliness, amenities, and local opinion. A place on my prestigious tier list is the prize. Let’s see where it ends up. Right off the train, what greeted my gaze was bikes. Lots and lots and lots of bikes. It’s great to see so much bike parking here being used. And it seems crazy to say that it looks like it needs even more, but it does. There’s clearly loads of people cycling here. A good omen. First up, I’m heading off east to Botley on the sensibly named Botley Road. There’s a cycle path all the way along here. Great, right? Well, yeah, but it’s a bit messy. Much of its 2 km stretch feels like a narrow gully marked out by mostly faded painted lines. It moves on and off the pavement a couple of times, too, with some confusing markings. Surely, the cycle path should be closer to the road here. It would be nice if the painted line was upgraded to a barrier like there is on the bridge. It mostly looks to be wide enough. Anyway, Botley Road Path is of course a welcome connection for cyclists, but a refresh could make it a real standout. Around Oxford is a ring road, most of which has a shared space path to accompany it. I can’t imagine anyone ever walking along here, so essentially it’s a bike path. Unfortunately, it’s a rubbish one. Traffic rockets past you as you rattle over the dilapidated surface, and there are multiple junctions which leave you vulnerable. It was hard to tell if cars were about to turn off here, and they are traveling quick. Yeah, that’s not fun having to uh run out across there like a stabbed rat. Because of their nature, ring roads don’t lend themselves to cycling either, as they skirt around the edge of a city, whereas most cycling journeys are of course more central. Though the ring road path is easily avoidable, and thankfully so. Let’s move on to something more positive. The rivers famously runs through Oxford and on its picturesque banks is a picturesque cycling path. It’s shared space, of course, but it’s not too narrow, and who’d want to go fast anyway with this view. There’s even some nature to accompany you on your journey. I spotted a kingisher here while having lunch. It’s lovely and gives you a pleasant option to go from the center to the south of Oxford. Good stuff. From here, I hopped onto a main road to head into town. And along the way, something became very clear about Oxford. Almost any main road has a painted line to protect you. And I mean this only partially sarcastically. Painted line paths are far from the gold standard, but having them so consistently seems to give cyclists much more of a presence on the tarmac. The cycle end coverage is hands down more extensive than anywhere I visited in the UK, and it clearly tempts people onto two wheels. As I headed into town, I noticed that the cycle lanes in the center of Oxford are a bit patchier than they are elsewhere. However, it is mostly a 20 mph limit, and with plenty of pedestrianized areas and other cyclists, it could be a lot worse. The thronging heart of Oxford means that everything moves a bit slower. You’ll probably find yourself sitting in traffic a fair bit and waiting behind stopped buses. It is annoying and disappointing when compared to the suburbs of the city, but at least it doesn’t feel deadly. Where there are paths, faded, painted lines are the order of the day. It’s not the best, but it’s evidently not so bad to dissuade people from cycling. On the bright side, there is an enormous quantity of bike parking options, which I love to see. Bananbury Road acts as a nice route northwards from the center. With a cycle lane that morphs into a bus lane on each side, you’re protected from the bulk of traffic. The bus lanes weren’t too busy, at least when I used them, so they act as an all right substitute for proper cycling infrastructure. Speaking of proper infrastructure, Banbury Road links onto Mast Ferry Road where you’ll find a pretty special bike path. I don’t think it has a proper name other than the Mast Ferry Road bike path, but it should have one cuz it’s an absolute beauty. You won’t see much better in the UK. A couple of kilometers of two-way fully segregated bike path complete with lighting and an invitingly smooth surface. It’s placed fantastically, too, acting as a link between the north and east sides of Oxford. I read online that the school on this road has the highest percentage of students biking to school in the UK. No surprise there. And another win for Oxford. Oh, look, a couple of higher bikes. The operator here is Lime Bikes, and sadly, I’ve got to say, most of them look pretty tatty. Buckled wheels and questionable looking tires were commonplace. A quick browse online shows that the local sentiment towards them is mostly negative, to say the least. It’s better than not having a higher bike option at all. And I did see them being used, but let’s hope they get their act together soon. Headley Way is a lot like Botley Road in its offering for cyclists. It’s rather patchy with a shared space pavement taking turns with a sorryl looking painted bike path. Mostly it’s fine, but a refresh could bring it up to the standard of the rest of the city. It links onto Hedington Road, which is great for heading to town. A wider, clearer, and smoother painted path takes you down what is one of the bigger hills in the city. Oxford is mostly flat with only a couple of easy hills to contend with. Another win for cyclists. One last main road to mention is Cowi Road. It’s one of the bigger letdown towns in the city. Heading away from town, it starts off all right, guiding us safely with more white paint. However, after just a few hundred meters, it disappears without apology. So univilized. For the rest of this road out to where it meets the ring road, there’s almost no other cycling infrastructure. It’s busy, too. So, you’ll be in the squabble along with the motor vehicles. So, to get out to the southeast, you’ll have to take a slightly more squiggly route if you want to stick closely to cycle paths. Something like this. It’s one of the more glaring gaps in the otherwise amazing cycle lane coverage of the city. Only a couple more things to check out now. Up first is the canal, but on my way there, I struck up a conversation with yet another friendly local cyclist. Let’s see what she had to say. >> Okay, I’m here today in Oxford with Rosie who lives on a canal boat. I do. So, I guess you cycle up and down the canals a lot here. >> I do. Yeah, we have to continuously c Well, I continuously cruise from Oxford to Banbury and back. So, wow. I don’t cycle all that distance, but I do for as much of it as I can. Usually about up until 20 miles a day. >> Amazing. And you cycle a lot around Oxford city center as well then. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And so uh generally what’s your opinion on the infrastructure here? >> I love that it’s um it’s a cycling city. There’s good infrastructure. Um you can take your train on on the train the you can take your bike on the train. Um so there’s like a lot of accessibility I guess even for wider ranges than just the city itself. >> Yeah. Okay. So do you find most journeys you do through and around Oxford there is a path for you to use? >> Yeah, I think unfortunately I think some of like personally I prefer it when that’s actually on the road because there’s often like pedestrian, cyclist, shared spaces and that is kind of tricky. >> A lot of shared space. Okay. But do you find that the shared space is well signposted so people know where they’re meant to be and it’s all it all works. >> It’s well signposted. Not everybody conforms to the side, which I think is the biggest issue for me cuz I cuz I like to go fast and I um and so it’s you just Yeah, it’s just not always that easy to do that safely on the cycle um designated spaces when they’re when they’re shared with pedestrians when people kind of go in and out of those spaces. >> Okay, cool. So, is there a a particular standout bit of infrastructure in Oxford that you would say is is is the best >> or a really a cool bit of of of cycle infrastructure? Well, I mean, my personal favorite is the fact that it says it on the like entering Oxford, a cycling city. I like that because it because there is a mentality for drivers and pedestrians and cyclists alike that this is a shared space and that and that cyclists and cycling is is part of the kind of the lifeblood, the life force of Oxford. >> It definitely produces a sort of safety and numbers, doesn’t it? >> Yeah, definitely. >> Yeah. Compared to other cities I’ve been to where a cyclist is a bit of a a novelty thing. There’s loads of loads of us about here. So, it’s uh it works quite nicely. >> Absolutely. I I used to live in Los Angeles and that’s such a vehicular city that it was my personal like activism to not learn how to drive and to not use a car to access the city. It’s such a vast >> expansive place that um that became its own kind of treasure hunt to explore as a cyclist. But the car the sort of because it’s such a vehicular city, people are used to being in their cars and they’re not used to sharing space with with cyclists. And so there were I can’t even count how many accidents I was just knocked off my bike because people weren’t kind of conscious and conscientious of of sharing space in that way. So that’s really different here in Oxford. >> So you haven’t been knocked off in Oxford? >> Uh no I haven’t actually. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. >> Okay. So is there any way you think Oxford could improve? my my personal like ambition is to um motivate the the bus companies to have um infrastructure to be able to support bicycles um being able to go on the front of bikes because in Los Angeles that was something that they did well is the buses have like a a sort of cage on the front that bikes can um awesome can go in and I like that >> anywhere in the UK. >> I haven’t either but I one can only dream >> and hope and protest and do all those things. Yeah. >> Awesome. Cool. So, one quick final question. If you had to rank Oxford out of five for cycling >> as a city to live in and cycle in, what would you rank it? >> Four or five? I think it’s pretty good. I think I mean I think there’s still there’s still progress that can be made as always, but I think in comparison to lots of other places I’ve lived, it has a pretty good infrastructure. >> Four and a half then, you say? >> Sure. Four. Four and a half. I’m also an optimistic person, so maybe other people wouldn’t feel the same. >> Lovely. Great. That’s everything then. Thanks, Rosie. >> Yeah, of course. Nice to meet you. >> You too. As Rosie mentioned, Oxford has a canal as well as its river. Further out from the center, this acts as another nice way to get to the north. It is, of course, Pancake Flat, and it isn’t too narrow or busy. This should be treated as a scenic route, as there are faster cycle routes northwards, but the fact that Oxford occasionally gives different options to get places by bike is fantastic. Many UK cities don’t have any options at all. However, as you get closer to the center on the canal, the toe path narrows and pedestrians multiply. So, you’ll have to slow down an awful lot. And I imagine at busy times it’s easier just to get off and walk. Like I said, there’s other options. And if you’re cycling down here, it’s probably because you just want a scenic saunter. So, not a huge deal. Finally, we come to Master Cycle Path. And it’s a great note to finish on. It’s a shared space path, but a lovely wide one, complete with fancy signposting, lighting, and a view of the river Churwell. This is a super handy link between the central and eastern parts of the city. And you can tell just how useful it is by the almost consistent stream of bikers and walkers using it. It’s a cherry on top of the sweet and voluuptuous cake that is the cycling infrastructure of Oxford. That said, there are a couple of gritty, horrible raisins in this cake. So, let’s chew the whole thing up and spit it back out onto the plate so we can analyze it properly and place it on the beloved tier list. The best thing about Oxford is its cycle lane coverage. Almost anywhere you cycle, there is some kind of infrastructure to aid you. As discussed, there are a couple of small gaps in the network and the paths themselves sometimes are a bit patchy, but on the whole, Oxford’s coverage is ace, 8 and 1/2 out of 10. The quality of said cycle paths does somewhat let down the quantity. This whole episode has been a bit of a marathon of painted line bike paths which wouldn’t be terrible, but many of them are quite faded and some are poorly thought out. This standard is brought up by a few big stars. The temp’s path, the master cycle path, and the master ferry road path all spring to mind. Overall, I’m feeling 5 and 1/2 points out of 10. Oxford is mostly flat as it lies around the confluence of two rivers, the Tempames and the Charwell. There are a couple of small inclines, but as you’ve seen, the worst it can throw at you isn’t enough to seriously impede your journey. The topography here can only be described as pleasant. Four points out of a possible five. When cycling around Oxford, it’s not often that you’re forced to directly share the roads with cars thanks to its numerous bike paths. When you do, it’s usually a 20 mph limit. Pretty friendly, in other words. My only complaint is that the busyiness in the center can be hard to navigate. Four points out of five. Unsurprisingly, the huge amount of bikers here demands good amenities. There’s always somewhere nearby to park your bike. Judging by what comes up on Google Maps, there are about 10 bike shops here, making around 16,000 people per bike shop. Very cool. As mentioned, the Lime Higher bikes look a bit tatty, which together with the lack of public service stations make up the only problems I can see. I’ll give another four points for amenities. Last, but not least, knowledgeable local cyclist Rosie awarded Oxford 4 and 1/2 points out of a possible five. She seemed to be pretty enamored with the cycling culture here. It’s lovely to see. Thanks for chatting with me, Rosie. So, that’s it. The score is on the board and it’s an impressive 30 and a half points. The best score yet and only a stones throw from A tier. I think A tier is very achievable, too. Beefing up some of the cycle lanes with more than just paint could probably make the difference alone. Sometimes I think I should email a city council with suggestions for improvements, but I’m not brave enough for politics. It’s already a really good city for cycling anyway, and I’d hardly recommend using a bike here, whether you’re living or just traveling. So, that’s one more episode of Cycling Cities UK under the helmet. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks when I’ll be covering the first capital city on the channel. Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you later. That’s good. Ready? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I’m today here. I start again.