EVERY now and again, you come across someone truly inspiring. Someone who makes perfect sense and who in turn helps you to make sense of what you’re striving to achieve.

For me, one such person was Paul Cullen, who died tragically on May 2. He was doing what he loved most (cycling) with the person he most loved (his wife, Ros Weatherall) when suddenly, he suffered a heart attack. He died later in the Horton Hospital.

I met Paul Cullen in 2003, not long after I’d founded Cyclox, the cycling campaign for Oxford. Paul and Ros had recently arrived from London, where they’d met as traffic campaigners. Once ensconced in their new home in Jericho, they were quickly drawn into the fray against the domination of motorised traffic in the city.

I’d started Cyclox because I was annoyed with how many unnecessary dangers and difficulties cyclists faced, day in, day out. (I know, little has changed in eight years!) Those were heady days and Cyclox meetings involved a melée of 30-plus crazies ranting about urgent, unrelated gripes. Paul and Ros attended some of the first Cyclox meetings. Through the din and the chaos, a voice of calm reason made itself heard. It was Paul’s.

We listened partly because Paul was instructive – he really knew his stuff. Cyclox members knew what they didn’t like but didn’t have a clue how to fix it. Paul, conversely, had spent his professional life as a traffic consultant. He had witnessed the fall from grace of the bicycle since the 1960s, and through his work, attempted to rebalance the disequilibrium.

He taught us the ‘hard’ (infrastructural) and ‘soft’ (PR) measures needed to create green, liveable cities.

We also listened because Paul was charismatic and convincing. He looked and behaved like a perfect gentleman. He would lull and persuade the most antagonistic opponent. His ability to carry audiences with him was enviable.

In my darkest hours as a cycle campaigner – and until I discovered rechargeable batteries, many were the dark hours! – Paul helped me to believe in myself and in the just cause of liveable cities.

He moved away from Cyclox between 2005 and 2010, to chair Oxford Pedestrians’ Association. He had no truck with the anti-cyclist pedestrian brigade, seeing clearly that walkers and bikers share common obstacles and many common solutions.

He was a major proponent of shared space and helped the hardcore in OxPA to accept that places such as Queen Street can and should be shared equably 24–7 by pedestrians and cyclists.

Paul had an unshakeable vision of modern cities as calm, friendly places where people can cycle or walk and talk without being drowned out and marginalised by rushing traffic.

Paul was the dynamo behind the successful ‘Life Begins at 20’ campaign. He wasn’t an inspiration just to me. Kevin Hickman, who runs Witney BUG, wrote, “To me, he was one of the most influential, independent thinkers I’ve met; quietly assured, gently persuasive.”

Paul used to visit Ros on his bike for lunch when she was at her pottery in Eynsham. During Bike Week, Cyclox is putting on a Paul Cullen memorial bike ride to Eynsham.

The ride leaves Broad Street at 6.15 pm, on Monday, June 20. I am sure that many Oxford cyclists will want to come along and remember Paul Cullen as I always will: on two wheels.