THERE is a definite sense this winter of Oxfordshire drowning under an unstoppable tide of cars. Not waving, but drowning. Roads 10 miles in any direction from the city are gridlocked, and the ringroad reduced by roadworks to desperate hour-long queues.

The road system feels irrevocably broken and while the county council – bless ’em – apply sticking plasters to the junctions around the ring road, the reality is that nothing can staunch the flow of cars. Traffic expands to fill spare capacity as soon as it’s been completed, and this is especially true of central Oxfordshire. Car affordability and ownership creep inexorably upwards, and commuting to and within the region has never been greater.

Oxford needs to learn from Cambridge about getting its new estates cycling: camcycle.org.uk/planning/guidance/ newdevelopments/ Traffic has reached a tipping point and the time is now for serious alternatives, for drivers often have none. The recent Millennium Cohort Study, that has since 2000 been following a group of children as they grow up, found – incredibly – that almost half of 11-year-olds had never ever travelled on a form of public transport. Should we be shocked?

Today’s political suicide is tomorrow’s ballsy vision. Oxford needs a stiff congestion charge for any non-resident vehicle entering the city. Rail and tram systems should connect Oxford’s satellite towns congestion-free to the city. No more buses – they’re traffic too. Useful as they have been at getting drivers out of cars, they still paralyse roads.

Pedestrian and cycle zones should cover the most over-trafficked streets. Within the city, cycling and walking should be made seriously viable options. Who in their right mind would cycle with a child along any of the eastern approaches to the Plain, then over Magdalen Bridge and along High Street? For seasoned adults, this cycle trip is unpleasant and feels dangerous day or night. For tens of thousands, this is an insurmountable barrier to cycling. The proposed changes to the Plain are a waste of money because they will make no difference to the attractiveness of this corridor to novice cyclists or riders with children.

The plans for Frideswide Square appear equally anti-cyclist, relying on nervous cyclists (unable or unwilling to share the busy junction with heavy traffic) sharing pavements with pedestrians – a sure recipe for discord and strife.

We are in a jam and no matter how many lanes the A40 and the A34 have it is never going to get better. We should shelve all this useless and expensive shoehorning of cars around the arterial roads. We must invest in real alternatives for poor commuters both to and within the city.