Waiting at the lights.
Commuting by bike is fairly popular in Oxford, despite some difficult roads / junctions to negotiate. Cyclists are a fairly widespread cross section of the population, though probably most popular with students. Students often find it very difficult to have a car in Oxford. Also many of the university buildings are accessible from car restricted areas. The difficulty of driving is definitely the biggest factor in encouraging such a bike uptake of cycling.
Waiting at lights
It just shows that you need some fairly drastic measures to get a real increase in cycling – either car free areas, restrictions on parking or higher taxes on driving.
This report shows the difficulty of getting people to commute / travel by bike. You can’t just paint a few cycle lanes and hope for the best.
Figures by the Department for Transport show:
- The number of vehicles licensed in Britain rose from 7.8 million in 1959 to 28.3m in 1999, to 34.2m by the end of 2008.
- The number of kilometres travelled by bike was 14 billion in 1959. This had fallen to 4bn in 1999 and is still at about that figure.
- During this period the relative cost of motoring has fallen compared to other modes of transport.
- Yet, Holland show that you can buck the trend and encourage more cycling in the era of the motor car
On Broad Street
Bikes November
Reflective Gear
Low Sun
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